So, I thought this might be a fun thread to start.

Tell us about your encounters with our friends in the animal kingdom..

As a youngster we lived a little way's out of the city so I was always out running around in the fields and woods and such like.

Now, for those not familiar, an Adder is a pit viper distantly related to the cobra I believe. The only venemous snake in the United Kingdom. So who do you think ran in to one? It didn't bite me but it tried to, preumably I stumbled over it whilst it was napping, because it was very slow.

In that same month I went and gave a Fox a hug. My mother saw this and was petrified thinking the fox would bite me, nope, it just stood there whilst I petted it then saunterd off.

I met a few water snakes in France (at least I assume they were water snakes) they were of no bother though.

Now, I have been bitten by a Brown Recluse whilst I was in Kansas once and have met numerous different snakes, including the deadly copperhead out near a place called Elephant Rock and Rattlesnake down in South Carolina (that had me running).

Has anybody been bitten by any of these or maybe something else?

And I thought it was a thread for our Welsh friends  ;)

I almost ran onto an adder once when I was out orienteering.  At least I think it was an adder, I didn't hang around long enough to check the markings out.  The snake was just going along a path that I was running along.  Rather bizarrely I thought running through the long grass near the path might be a safe way to run past it.

When I was orienteering in Sweden I went into a clearing and scared a snake that was sunning itself on a rock.  I swear this thing was 6 foot long but no one else seems to believe me.

No other scary animal encounters to relate.  That's an advantage of living here.

So, I thought this might be a fun thread to start.

Tell us about your encounters with our friends in the animal kingdom..


I hope horse stories count...I"m saving snake stories for later.


I have so many of these stories.  Here is a funny one from my childhood.
My aunt rode inhorse shows and I spent tons of time around horses.  One very hot sunny day, we went to a show and my dad bought
me a root beer and a hot dog.
We walked around, looking at the horses, me patting them on the nose, drinking my root beer.
We reached the pen where my aunt's horse, Floozy, was hanging out.  She came to me and I gave her a pat and she suddenly
sneezed right in my face.  Well, i fell down, my soda and food covered in horse snot.  My dad helped me up and wiped me off, wiped of fthe can and gave me my drink. Unbeknownst to us, a bee had gotten inside and right then I took a sip and it stung my lip and my face blew up like
a balloon.  I fell again, crying.  I understand why he was trying not to laugh...me, like a little kid, saying through my tears "it's not funny!!"
My day was ruined and we went home.  The animals had won.  But I'd be back.......

And I thought it was a thread for our Welsh friends  ;)

I almost ran onto an adder once when I was out orienteering.  At least I think it was an adder, I didn't hang around long enough to check the markings out.  The snake was just going along a path that I was running along.  Rather bizarrely I thought running through the long grass near the path might be a safe way to run past it.

When I was orienteering in Sweden I went into a clearing and scared a snake that was sunning itself on a rock.  I swear this thing was 6 foot long but no one else seems to believe me.

No other scary animal encounters to relate.  That's an advantage of living here.


Snakes in sweden, this is new to me.

I told you what happened to my mom with the adder right?

She was out walking her dog and this adder reared up and bit the dog, she had the dogs leash in her hand and hit the adder with it, my mom's tough.

I hope horse stories count...I"m saving snake stories for later.


I have so many of these stories.  Here is a funny one from my childhood.
My aunt rode inhorse shows and I spent tons of time around horses.  One very hot sunny day, we went to a show and my dad bought
me a root beer and a hot dog.
We walked around, looking at the horses, me patting them on the nose, drinking my root beer.
We reached the pen where my aunt's horse, Floozy, was hanging out.  She came to me and I gave her a pat and she suddenly
sneezed right in my face.  Well, i fell down, my soda and food covered in horse snot.  My dad helped me up and wiped me off, wiped of fthe can and gave me my drink. Unbeknownst to us, a bee had gotten inside and right then I took a sip and it stung my lip and my face blew up like
a balloon.  I fell again, crying.  I understand why he was trying not to laugh...me, like a little kid, saying through my tears "it's not funny!!"
My day was ruined and we went home.  The animals had won.  But I'd be back.......


Ah yes, you grew up with horses as well, I suppose because I grew up with them, being thrown off or kicked isn't a big deal to me.
I'll share a couple of good ones..

I'm sitting by the stable door eating a Snickers bar after a dressage event, anyway, I turn and notice my snickers bar is gone, literally, I'm holding an empty wrapper, I then look up to notice a bay face grinning away, she'd stole it straight from the wrapper, greedy mare.

Nastiest thing that ever happened with a horse, I was working with some youngsters, anyway, they behaved alright in the menage and I was going to turn them out. I had one in my right hand and one in my left right, both of them obviously saw something horrifingly frightening and jumped out of their skins, anyway, they both spagged out and my left shoulder was wrenched out of the socket. So, with this dangling arm I had to catch them both before they took off and caused and trouble. After the first had been put in to the field I was so tempted to beat the one that wrenched my shoulder, but I consoled myself by informing him that he'd be glue.

Snakes in sweden, this is new to me.

I told you what happened to my mom with the adder right?

She was out walking her dog and this adder reared up and bit the dog, she had the dogs leash in her hand and hit the adder with it, my mom's tough.


I think I remember you telling me this one before.  Don't mess with your mum!

I had a giant iguana attached to my face for an hour while people tried to pry it off me.  The only cool thing was the heart-shaped scar it left for a while.
I was in a pony stampede and the horse I was on ran between two horse trailers...the space was wide enough for a horse, but not a horse and a person's legs.  I was shredded and in the emergency room...summer ruined.
A python came out of the rain forest in Cairns and interrupted my lunch...it was pointed out to me by a ranger...who I then assisted in dragging the animal away...that was COOOOOOOOL!
A dog bit me - 5th birthday.  Top jaw of dog down on my nose, lower jaw of dog under my chin. Still have the scars..and no fear of dogs.  If you claim that you are scared of dogs becuase one barked at you one time, you are missing out...stop being a pussy and go play with dogs and enrich your life, sissy!

Hmm
I have a near snake experience, in that I went to put stuff in my composter and there were these broken thick white egg shells in there which my Dad identified as snake egg shells. Thankfully I never saw what gave birth to them or what hatched out..............

I have been bitten 4 times by dogs and knocked flat on the ground by one too. I have also been bitten by a swan and a goose ! not at the same time I hasten to add but in both cases I was feeding them ungrateful creatures !! I was also bitten by a spider in Orlando whilst on holiday.

I do have a fab animal story that involves my Dad and a herd of camels does that count ??

Fortunately no critters have ever tried to hurt me. :)

meh, a goat tried to eat my dress once at a petting zoo, when I was little. I had on a green dress that resembled lettuce, I suppose. :D ;D

Fortunately no critters have ever tried to hurt me. :)


Really? Then you should get out more...there is nothing more life-affirming...
although my stories are rather tame.

We have basically all the deadliest snakes, spiders, insects.etc in the world. Something we're quite proud of. I remember on one occasion I saw a snake right in front of me while walking on the road; it was one of the most poisonous species (with an 85% mortality rate or thereabouts). There it was, staring at me with its beady black eyes. I was kind of scared out of my wits...even after I found out it was dead.

Really? Then you should get out more...there is nothing more life-affirming...
although my stories are rather tame.


;D Red bicycle blue bicycle.

Several years ago, our neighbors had this old barn that was falling down (they have since tore it down). I think it was Halloween when this HUGH skunk came waddling out-what was unusual about that skunk (not just its size) was that fact that it was white with a black stripe.  :o (I hope you can see it in the pic)


There was another time when Hubby went to get some cat food and since they didn't have the usual stuff, he just got the store brand-much to our cat's dislike and she refused to eat it. Rather than just chunking it, we put it outside for the neighborhood cats (which we have a lot of). I heard someone on the back porch one night and wanted to see which cat was enjoying his "free meal". When I turned on the light, to my surprise it looked like a BIG RAT!-in other words, it was an opossum. I knew if I went to get the camera he would run so I didn't get a pic. But, man, he was UGLY!!



Cat

I've encountered a raccoon that was a as big as a cat eating our garbage.  :o

We have basically all the deadliest snakes, spiders, insects.etc in the world. Something we're quite proud of. I remember on one occasion I saw a snake right in front of me while walking on the road; it was one of the most poisonous species (with an 85% mortality rate or thereabouts). There it was, staring at me with its beady black eyes. I was kind of scared out of my wits...even after I found out it was dead.


Taipan?

I know somebody who got bit by one.. and lived.

And.. the same guy (My friend Mark) had a teacher who had a run in with a box jellyfish. It touched his leg, brushed against it. Mark said that the marking on his leg looked like somebody had whipped him in exactly the same place until the skin just wasn't there, apparently they're just.. more painful than anything that could ever be imagined.

When I got bit by the Recluse I really didn't know what it was, it was only a small bite, but then the skin started to.. basically rot... Recluses won't kill you, but they can cause some revolting problems, such as the skin essentially decaying and rotting away.

I've heard both of those.  Recluse bites are just downright NASTY.


They're revolting. I got mine all cleared up quickly, but if you leave them, it'll all just rot away, Necrosis it's called.

Yes they are.

On the subject of spiders, I'm not too fond of them either.  Smaller ones just get squished, but bigger ones give me the heebie jeebies.  I went out to the garage one night to put some garbage in the can and as I was going back into the house (barefoot, , hairymind you), between me & the door was this HUGE (about the size of the palm of my hand including the legs), hairy, brown spider.  As I got closer to it (the original plan was to just run around it), the damned thing JUMPED at me.  I tried throwing stuff at it to get it to move, but it was like a ninja, and kept evading everything I threw.  I ended up opening the garage door and going around to the front of the house to get back in.


You are way more brave than me.

Snakes I'm not bad with, Lizards I'm fine with.. in general, anything huge dosen't bother me, spiders I can't deal with.
I will actually run away.. I'm only one stage away from screaming and passing out, I hate them!

Years ago, I was walking back from the local flea market that I'd just been to, and as a shortcut, I walked across a small creek.  To get across the creek, there were stones that I had to step on, but what I didn't notice was that one of them wasn't a stone.  Just as I'm walking a cross, I feel a tugging on my pantleg.  I looked down to see that I'd stepped on a turtle shell, and the turtle had stuck his head out and bitten onto my pantleg.

Being the lover of reptiles that I am  ::) I screamed like a fuсking girl, shook the turtle loose, then ran faster than I'd ever run before.  For a while, I was having nightmares about that turtle.  I am terrified of reptiles.  Always have been, and always will be  :\'(

^ good story, Jason.  ;D

I'm trying to muster up some long lost memories of strange animal encounters. The only one I can remmeber now is that I went over to my friends house about 13 years ago, and her older brother thought it would be cool to explore the land behind their house, as it was vacant, rolling hills except for a big white circular building that I believe belong to Shell or some other petroleum company. We went with about 5 other people and got into all sorts of trouble.

At one point, we were walking uphill and had trespassed over a barbed wire fence. Well, that was a bad mistake as just when I hopped over the fence, I was face to face with a bull. No one seemed to notify of this until I turned my back around. Lucky me. Well, I just walked slowly past him and he huffed and puffed a bit, but I got past him without much of a fuss. I guess I got lucky. We all got lucky.

You just described my reaction to rodents.  My best friend has hamsters and (without telling me), took me into their "room" to show me her sons' new pets.....I almost passed out :-[  Oh, this is the same friend who had a snake as a pet :-\\  BTW, I used to have a tarantula and it never bothered me....I usually just get freaked when they "surprise" me.


Urggghh, I'd freak out around a tarantula. Even if they're contained, I just can't stand them.

Rodents are no biggie, I used to Kill mice and rats all the time.
They would get in the back of the trucks sometimes, so I'd go in there with a shovel and wail on em  ;D

Many Years ago,I've encountered a cat sleeping on our porch during the cold winter months.

Many Years ago,I've encountered a cat sleeping on our porch during the cold winter months.


You must have been terrified.

You must have been terrified.


At first I was.We never took it in cause it was a neighbor of ours who owned the cat from across the street.