Hello, we are the second-grade Writing Club, and this is our first story. It is about Principal [Jeffrey] Franey and his rose-hair tarantula named Taranty. You pronounce it TA-RANCH-Y.
Taranty is a female spider and she lives in a terrarium in Principal Franey’s office at Healdsburg Elementary and Charter School. Principal Franey doesn’t know exactly how old she is, but he thinks she’s about 11.
Principal Franey has had the tarantula since 2010, which means she is full-grown and is as big as she is going to get. She stays in his office. Principal Franey does not take her home because his wife doesn’t like spiders. He doesn’t take Taranty on walks either. He said, “People think I’m crazy enough, I don’t need to walk around with a tarantula on a leash.”
Principal Franey bought Taranty at a pet store in Corte Madera. He paid $20 for it. He wanted to get a dog, but dogs were more expensive and harder to take care of. Principal Franey got the spider’s habitat for free from a science teacher at the school where he used to teach.
Tarantulas shed their skin. That’s called “moulting.” Taranty has moulted three times since Principal Franey has had her. Principal Franey keeps the moults to show people when they come to visit. Tarantulas shoot webs when they are going to moult. They also shoot hair at their opponents when they are going to fight. At least that’s what Principal Franey told us.
Taranty’s favorite food is live crickets. She also eats mealworms. She can go up to three months without new food.
There is a coconut shell in Taranty’s habitat, and she uses that as her home base. Humans are big to her, so she hides in her coconut when we are around. It is dark and quiet in there.
Taranty doesn’t like water. She comes out of her coconut shell when Principal Franey pours water over it. The habitat also has logs and rocks and dirt, and a wood wall that Taranty likes to climb. The temperature in the habitat is usually about 70 degrees.
According to a book titled “Scary Spiders,” these huge spiders are creatures from nightmares and horror films. They have fat hairy bodies and wiry legs. There are more than 800 different species of tarantulas, and they are cousins of crabs.
According to another book titled “Big Spiders,” tarantulas are the kings and queens of ambushes. At night they sit in the entrances of their dens waiting for something tasty to walk by. It might be a cockroach or a frog. Even a mouse will do because tarantulas are the biggest spider of all. Tarantulas are different in other ways too. Female tarantulas lay eggs in silk egg sacks. They seal the sacks after laying between 500 and 1,000 eggs. The females then stand guard protecting them.
We learned a lot about tarantulas while working on this story. Our next story will come out soon.
