Progress with Mel, my therapy spider, continues to advance at a speedy clip. I now worry about his welfare: can there really be enough for him to eat in the truck? Should I create a canned hunt for him, import some flying insects into his territory? I almost miss him on days I don't see him. Sometimes I even call plaintively his name. (I've anthropomorphized him into a curmudgeonly, almost-elderly man, see, partial to tweed caps and betting on the ponies.) When he's behaving extra bashfully, I playfuly call him "Melanie". We have fun with each other like that.