Our Story

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” Anatole France

Life Before Pumpkin

Over the past 2 years, my 10 year old daughter Lani has been having a hard time in school with bullying and struggling to make friends.

Lani would come home everyday and cry herself to sleep at night because she had no one to play with. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to know that your child is feeling like this. School can be a horrible place from some children and as parents we only have a certain amount of control over what happens when they are in school. Once I had spoken to the school and put things in place, I knew that more needed to be done for her at home to support her emotionally and to get my happy little girl back.

I always have been an animal lover and I am a strong believer in the power of healing that our pets have on our souls. I knew that Lani needed her own little pet that she could spend time with whenever she was feeling sad or lonely but it needed to be small enough to fit nicely in her room. That’s when we discovered the wonderful world of Jumping Spiders.

We spoke to Lani about the prospect of getting a pet Jumping Spider and her little face lit up. Lani knew that if she wanted a Jumping Spider that she had to do lots of research into how to care for them and save up her own money for what she needed. From this point, Jumping Spiders & researching were her sole focus.

At nighttime, we didn’t have tears talking about how upsetting her day had been in school, instead we had excitement about which type of Jumping Spider she was going to choose, what she was going to name it and what new interesting fact she had learnt that evening.

We know that this hasn’t solely fixed the situation that she is in right now, but it has really helped her mental health and brought happiness back into her life in the form of a little 8 legged distraction!

Eventually we came to the agreement that she had gained enough knowledge and had saved up enough money to buy herself the things she needed to house her spider. She ordered herself a little Female Blue Mountain Regal Jumping Spider (Phidippus regius “Rastafari) and named her Pumpkin!

Little Pumpkin has brought so much joy to her life and this is how Little Viv of Horrors began.

The Brains Behind Little Viv of Horrors

When we were shopping for enrichment online for Pumpkin’s enclosure we soon realised that our choices were quite limited!

Lani wasn’t keen on some of the things that were already available or maybe wanted certain themes in her enclosure for Pumpkin.

One day whilst online shopping she turned around to me and said “Mummy can you please make me a Toadstool Mushroom hide for Pumpkin to live in”. I have a whole room dedicated to crafts and this opportunity to get creative i just couldn’t resist! I got straight on the job and spent the whole day crafting her a little mushroom out of Polymer clay. Lani was absolutely over the moon with it and asked me to make more things for Pumpkin’s enclosure. That week, throughout the evenings, little drawings would appear in front of me of what she wanted me to make for her. The day after she gave me the drawings whilst she was at school I would began to bring her drawings to life for her. Lani would eagerly rush home to add her new additions into Pumpkin’s enclosure.

Inevitably and quite quickly, Pumpkins enclosure became full but Lani wanted to continue designing and I wanted to continue making! This is when we had the idea to begin selling our makes firstly on Etsy and now on our very own website.

We can’t wait to start creating your orders for your little Spoods & Mantises!

From the Little Viv of Horrors team - Mummy, a much happier little girl & Pumpkin X

A small terrarium with a decorative mushroom, colorful leaves, small fungi, and a yellow pumpkin ornament inside a clear acrylic case.
A small jumping spider with black and orange markings on its head, sitting on a wooden surface, with a blurred stone or ceramic object in the background.