Buma is a Mexican Red Rump tarantula.
Catelyn Topping holds Dopey, a Chilean Rose Hair tarantula.Catelyn Topping was only 15 years when she fell in love.
With tarantulas.
It wasn’t love at first sight, she says. It took an entire week.
“I started volunteering at Chattanooga Zoo and there was one keeper who had a room full of tarantulas,” Topping says. “She was on vacation so I watered and fed them. At first it was terrifying, but by the second week, I was in love. I thought it was amazing how they ate and how pretty some of them are. They were so cool to me and I was fascinated.”
Topping, 21, of Flintstone, Ga., and an employee at a local day care and a gaming store, now has 16 tarantulas living in her home. She calls them her “babies.”