I've seen rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths, black widows, scorpions, alligators (with me in the water) and sharks (again with me in the water) - literally just a few feet away or less from each one. Once when I was little, my dad, granddad and I were canoeing down a river and about 4-6 snakes were swimming toward the boat. My dad and granddad were swatting at them with the paddles. I later found out that we ran through a nest of cottonmouths. That should have been one of the scariest moments but I was too little to be scared just excited. The gator in the water didn't give me warm fuzzies. I had a stringer of fish (on a quick release) attached to me but the fishing was too good to move. But I did keep a very close eye on him and felt very uncomfortable when he'd disappear. I was lobster diving in the keys. People put trash in the water (old signs on cinder blocks, hotwater heater with the end out, barrels, etc) to harbor lobster hiding places then mark them on the gps to return when it lobster season. It will give your heart a race when you dive down and stick your head under something expecting to see a lobster and out shoots a nurse shark. Harmless but scary. That scare is over in a flash though. A few years ago in Destin, I had the kids out on a huge float we have and I was holding on to them so it wouldn't go crashing into the surf. A 6' bull shark (more dangerous) cruised right on by just a few feet from us. He was heading horizontal on the shoreline so as kept my eye out - and headed in with them (they freaked). However, the scariest moment wasn't against the most deadly creature but did get my heart going the longest. I was under my house in a crawl space on the far side of the entrance in an area that was about 1.5 feet high belly crawling to close up a vent that had fallen over. As soon as I was in the tightest area I spotted just a few feet away 2 beady eyes and the face of a big raccoon up my wall with his face sticking out looking at me...time to go...I had little room to move to protect myself in defense. That was the longest 40' belly crawl back.
Scorpions when I was younger. But by far, one of the scariest moments of my life was getting chased down a sand dune by a CAMEL SPIDER. That sucker was HUGE! Turns out, the reason he was running at me was to get in my shade, because the sand in the sun was WAY too hot. but still. A spider that size chasing me had me running for my life. I think I was around 12 years old.
I was one surrounded by a pack of coyotes while camping. In my mind, I knew they're cowards who usually don't attack humans, but still: when you see eyes shining in the night, and they're all around you, you start to freak out a bit. Turns out they were just checking out the campsite, and they decided to move along after a little while, but still. Fortunately, we had a whole lot of beer to calm us down afterwards. Partyball FTW.
Kind of wild/domestic animal was a python that got lost in my car. Was young and dumb and a friend bought one of those small pythons from the flea market and we went somewhere right after that. I didnt want to be mean to the python b/c my friend had him in a plastic grocery bag so i told him to let him out in the car b/c where could he go? So of course we cant find him when we get back so i figure he escaped somehow but about a month later i'm driving somewhere and i look down at the floorboard on the passengers side and see nothing but snake coming from my dash to under the seat! The car was traded in soon there after. uhhh creepy
The afternoon before I was to leave my base in Taiwan, I heard a hissing sound on my way back to my tdy barricks. It was a cobra, hood flaired & swaying. My 1st reaction was just to stare at it. Then I realized that if it struck, I wouldn't see my wife in 5 days. So I slowly stepped back. It calmed down & slithered away in the grass. I kept an eye on it til the air police came & killed it. Taiwan didn't have tigers...Thank God!
