Mystery Bug

As I was prowling through the garden looking for a macro abstract I happened upon this critter, which I thought was dead, floating in Ozzie's water bowl. It demonstrated that it was very much alive when I touched it with my finger, shooting across the bowl, and also that it isn't a spider since I can only spot six legs, but it looks like there are a couple of empty sockets on the right side.

Assuming that it is a spider missing a couple of legs, I consulted Mr Google regarding Sonoma County Spiders. It bears a fairly striking resemblance to an immature male black widow.  I know it's not a female because they are black and have a distinctive red hourglass shape on their abdomens. In the course of this investigation I learned a lot more about spiders than I really needed to know, including the fact that we should be preparing for lots of spiders this year. I don't see how that is possible but I think we're about to find out

Deciding to investigate further, so I went back out, found it still floating in the dog bowl and poked it with a bamboo leaf which it promptly clutched to its abdomen with two legs. I wasn't keen on looking at its abdomen anyway since even with a macro shot, I'm not sure I'm capable of discerning the minute differences in coloration and pattern. The water in the dog dish was quite warm, so I pulled the leaf with attached spider out of the water and set it down on the step in the shade. 

It was gone in a trice, disappearing into a crack in the deck.
Losing two legs didn't seem like much of a handicap....