I'll respect you a lot more when you finally man up and tell them your greatest fear is running into.... Nessie.
When I was six, my family moved to a small camp on the Northern edge of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. There were no restaurants, just a mess hall where we had every meal. The very first night I was there, I went into the bathroom and found one of these climbing out of the toilet: Needless to say, I screamed bloody murder.
On a rabbit hunting trip it was a sunny day and about 35 degrees outside. Me and my girlfriend's dad pull up to our spot to let the dogs out. I hop out the truck and right between my feet was a four foot cottonmouth. I actually thought it was dead because it was so cold outside so I called my girlfriend's dad over and he said it wasn't dead that it was heating itself up in the sunlight. He proceeded to shoot it in the head with a .22. Didn't really scare me but probably the only thing I can think of. I'm not really scared of snaked. Now if I lived in South America, Australia, Asia, or Africa I might be. We have some wimpy snaked compared to them.
There was a possum hiding in a trash bag in my garage when I was younger. I went in to grab a football or something, and I heard this hiss, and when I looked down, there was this snarling, evil-looking demon rat showing it's razor sharp teeth, about to bite into my ankle. I don't think I've ever jumped as high, or yelled as loud as that moment. My mom called animal control later that day, and they took it away. Also, when I was in my apartment in San Antonio, I woke up one morning, put my feet down and felt something crawl onto my toes. When I looked down, it was a scorpion, so I kicked it across the room, grabbed a telephone book, and crushed it. When I lifted the phone book, the damn thing was still alive, and ANGRY. So I dropped the phone book on it again from a higher height, jumped on it, and left the phone book there for 2 hours. I had heard from someone that scorpions always travel in pairs, so if you find one, there might be another one around, so I spent the rest of the day turning my apartment upside down trying to find the other scorpion. I guess you could say I was SCORPIOWNED.
Swimming in Lake Travis, I broke the surface of the water, turned around and found a 5 foot cottonmouth facing me floating just slightly out of arm's reach. Luckily, he angled off as I slowly walked backwards in the water. I was really lucky I was in a place I could stand and didn't have to splash it to get away.
while that's true, i think the bite from a rattler, cottonmouth or a copperhead would make for a pretty bad afternoon.
My wife had a similar story growing up near Little Rock...she opened the gate up to where the trash bins were, taking some trash out, and there was a possum perched on top of the bin hissing at her. She's never opened that gate since.
Giant centipede. They are definitely some freaky creatures. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UROVfmY3NTA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UROVfmY3NTA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
I've seen cotton mouth, rattlesnakes, copperheads, coral snakes, black widows, tarantulas, black bears, javelina, possums, and raccoons, and coyotes. But the scariest one to me were the nutria I would see in San Marcos. They were scary because they had no fear of humans. All the other animals I was prepared for or knew what to do in an encounter. But these things would see you and rather than run would jump in rthe river, swim toward you, and get out, and keep walking up to you, with those huge teeth sticking out. I guess I've heard they are just naturally curious, but it was scary to me.
I had a rattlesnake strike my flip flop and miss my foot once. I wouldn't have noticed but a felt something tugging at my shoe, I look down and this rattler has his fang stuck in my foam flip flop! It was scary. Also, human. I was randomly beat w/in a inch of my life by 3 strangers once. That was also scary.
Bull Elk in Estes Park Co. Was walking through a McD's parking lot and turned and there is a 700+ lb animal with giant human crushing antlers. I was spooked until I realized he was as alarmed as a milk cow on lude's. Previously, on my sisters unsigned reality show, an elk sat on the hood of her preposterously proportioned Ford Aspire to leave a nice ass print. Or at least, so the story goes.
I've had a couple of experiences with black bears, but I wouldn't call them scary. They tend to be quite small in GA, and pretty peaceful. Snakes would be if I ever got within striking distance of a big one. Usually I see the big ones from far enough away. There are numerous non-deadly ones I've gotten close to that scared me at first glance, but realized nothing to be afraid of.
Ohhhhh, this story reminded me... A little over a year ago, me, my brother, and good friend were playing golf at at Green Caye in Dickinson. Two of these things, that I kid you not were at least 80 pounds, walked up to us on the green, looked at us, and walked right by and into the water on the other side of the hole. After it happened I still have the mental picture, My brother and I were standing there with our putters in attack position. My good friend, a police officer, already had a gun out... Two questions popped into my head.. 1. WTF were those things!?!?! 2. Who the hell brings a gun to play golf?!?!?
I've had a couple snake encounters. Once, dove hunting, I ducked under a branch and when i looked down i saw the tail end of a rattle pass between my legs! By far the most odd was a gila monster in Arizona. My dog was barking and i walked outside to see what the deal was...WTF?!?! I thought i was in jurassic park all of a sudden. Fortunately, i kept the dog away but that a freaky encounter, especially if you'd never seen one of those things
