For people who suffer from arachnophobia or a fear of spiders, there are a couple of places in the world that you should probably avoid.

Australia, even though it’s known for its beautiful landscapes, wonderful people, and marvelous city, is also known for its vast amount of animal inhabitants and species.

Snakes and huge spiders are a relatively common occurrence down under.

One Australian family actually decided to embrace that in a pretty unique way.

If you take a look at the pictures above and below, the majority would have the basic instinct to get rid of this massive spider!

After all, who would want of these eight-legged friends roaming around the house at night? Killing it or letting it outside seems like the most reasonable option as spiders are often seen as pests, but this family decided to look at this animal as a pet instead.

The guest ‘arrived’ at the house and was discovered by Annette Gray’s son, Jake.

Of course, knowing that there are a ton of spider species in Australia, including large ones, they were bound to come across one of these someday.

They decided to let the spider stay, and they even named her ‘Charlotte’.

Of course, it’s a reference to none other than the absolutely classic tale and movie, “Charlotte’s Web”, one of the most famous fictional spiders out there. And apparently, this real-life spider also resembles the fictional one because she’s quite gentle in nature.

After doing a little bit of research, Jake identified the spider as a Huntsman. Of course, he needed to know if the large spider was actually any threat to them before they decided to let her stay.

Luckily, the Huntsman spiders don’t pose high health risks for humans, even though they are venomous.

Their venom, however, isn’t nearly enough to incapacitate or hurt a grown person in any way. It’s more used to take care of their prey and give them a paralyzed effect, which are only smaller animals such as lizards, frogs, and insects. Furthermore, the species isn’t known to act aggressively towards people, so Jake and his mom weren’t exactly worried about their new housemate.

A lot scarier than their venom is without a doubt, their massive size! Sometimes, these Huntsman spiders can grow up to a leg span of 5 inches – times eight, of course!

Now that the two were relieved about the possible dangers that Charlotte could bring, they decided to just let her stay.

However, the mom and son pair didn’t expect Charlotte to stay for a lengthy time! In fact, they even got to watch her grow up. She used to be rather small in size, but then she grew up to six inches wide. Yikes!

“We’ve watched [Charlotte] grow over the last year or so,” Jake said to The Dodo. “[She] never bothered us. She moves about the house, pops up room to room, eats all the bugs.”

Not everyone who encounters a Huntsman spider is as welcoming as Annette and Jake are.

Another Australian woman actually found a Huntsman too, but she was scared of arachnids, particularly the large ones! Luckily, she managed to relocate the eight-legged animal to a nearby tree thanks to some tips from the internet.

Keeping spiders as pets is something that’s quite common, although most of the time, they’re put in enclosures and aren’t free to roam the house. You also have to make sure that the breed can actually survive in captivity, and you should also take care of the basics such as plenty of food and water.

Of course, letting a spider roam around just like Charlotte is always an option too.

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Source: The Dodo, Wikipedia, The Dodo (2), Scout Life