About 20 years ago, I was at a business meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. I went for a run to the beach, which took me across a large open field with a stream running through it. I stopped to, uh, relieve myself. While doing so, I spotted fresh alligator tracks. I have never run so fast before or since.

Out here in the High Desert, we get coyotes and javelinas roaming the streets of our subdivision, but they aren't dangerous. I have had a tarantula or two cross my path, and found a scorpion in my bedroom, but neither bit me.