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.
Haven't you learned by now that it's the sunshine and warmth that bring all those creatures?
Back in Brooklyn, about 50 years ago. I was about 10 years old and went to work one day with my dad. That meant I got to separate all the nickels, dimes and quarters when my father emptied the pinball machines and jukeboxes. We were in a rough bar and my dad didn't want to count the money out in the open so he asked the bartender if there was somewhere he could go that was more private. The bartender pointed to a door and said, "Al, the light switch is on the wall". We opened the door, my dad reached for the switch and as soon as the light came on the room came alive. I mean it CAME ALIVE!!! Rats were swarming EVERYWHERE. Big fucking rats!! Dozens of them. I can't believe how quickly my dad scooped me up and slammed the door shut. To this day I am skeeved by rats.
FWIW - It was somewhere downtown Brooklyn. I remember it was close to the Williamsburg Savings Bank Bldg.
