Elsewhere in the SDMB I read tales of:
Tarantulas, Gila monsters, snakes, scorpions, etc. Invading the homes and dwellings of fellow dopers.
I just get the geckos. (Last sighting was a month ago, usually when I catch one I just take them outside and place them under the bushes)
Cute, but I have to say that after living 5 years in the desert and next to a park, I am beginning to be disappointed. Heck, when recently **Opalcat ** came to give us a visit, she reported that scorpions showed up in her motel! I am of course only half joking, I would not want to see any of those vermin showing up in my place, but I would feel more in tune with my fellow dessert dwellers if I had the experience someday of dealing with typical fauna.
As it is, when this topic appears, the only comment I can do is that I have a gecko “problem”, and the bad news is not just that I am not getting 15% off on car insurance, but that the problem sounds so wimpy to have in a place that was supposed to be so rugged.
Any other dopers out there living in places supposedly full with critters that somehow have avoided you?
well i live in nj, and so far the jersey devil has not shown up in my yard
Ah, that devil:
The Jersey Devil :dubious:
But in New Jersey, it is more likely that one would run into coyotes, bobcats and badgers badgers badgers badgers…
I’ve lived in Montana since I was five and have never seen a mountain lion. And I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods.
I’ve been fishing many times in areas that could be home to Massasauga rattlers. I’ve (thankfully) never seen one.
We have lots of deer and fox, but it’s once in a blue moon that I see them. Raccoons and opossums, too.
I’ve never seen a raccoon that wasn’t in a zoo or lying dead in the road. Yet a former coworker who lives several blocks from me found young raccoons in his house one night; they’d come in through the cat flap and were trying to wash the cats’ food in the water bowl. He shooed them out with a broom.
I never saw a live opossum until I moved into the city. The first live ones I saw (and the only ones I’ve ever heard make a noise) were hissing at each other on my fire escape.
I’ve lived with raccoons, and I can tell you that they are one of the most fascinatingly intelligent non-primates on the planet. We raised several over the years (Mama Coon gets hit by a car, baby coons aren’t old enough to live on their own, we take them home and raise them until they can fend for themselves). VERY cool animals.
I’ve heard that cats are the only animals that truly purr.
This isn’t true. Raccoons can do it, too. They also like to stick their nose in your ear when you’re camping in the back yard to watch the Perseids.
God, I miss my 'coons.
Animals I’m supposed to have contact with, but don’t: …I can’t think of any.