what's your most memorable experience with a wild animal?

[TommyTooter]

i've never killed anything more highly advanced than a reptile intentionally. nailed a few birds and dogs with vehicles here and there. not many, but enough to remember. a pheasant hit the side of the motor home coming out of the nevada gathering. we wanted to eat him real badly and pulled over but couldn't find him. ran over a turtle once. that was weird. like driving up on a speed bump that squished.

i was in fog on a central florida road one time and a buzzard flew up into my windshield and almost broadsided a cow that was twice as big as my car that stepped out in front of me not long after that. i was driving a real snappy little 1974 fiat 128 sport coupe at the time. .

an armadillo once just walked out in the middle of my street and wouldn't move until i got out of the car , walked up to him and nudged him with my foot. dumbest animal i've ever seen. didn't budge when i honked the horn or gunned the engine. my roommate had a job filling racks for no nonsense at all the stores in central florida and would just pull over, grab his shotgun barrel, grab them by the tail and beat them to death for some of the greasiest stew i've ever had.

i could go on and on about all kinds of critters i've had close encounters with. a whale even swam alongside u tampa's research vessel when i was at school there and porpoises would frolic around us while we were collecting samples from the flats.

i've never been attacked by any critter and i already told y'all about the owl that let me handle him. so what's your best wild animal story?

 

[Dee]

Feeding a chipmunk rice krispy treats on Mt. St. Helens. He just came right up to me and let me feed him.

 

[Sinon]

When I was much younger, I went on a trip with my local youth club to a dry-ski slope. I managed to take a fall on the way down, close to the bottom. There was a fox staring at me from about 10 feet away from where I landed.

Also, we get hedgehogs a lot. One spent about a week living in the lowest part of a clogged drainpipe in my yard.

 

[TommyTooter]

Feeding a chipmunk rice krispy treats on Mt. St. Helens. He just came right up to me and let me feed him.

those little boogers will bite you. squirrels too. they'd drive us nuts begging on boy scout campouts.

 

[TommyTooter]

When I was much younger, I went on a trip with my local youth club to a dry-ski slope. I managed to take a fall on the way down, close to the bottom. There was a fox staring at me from about 10 feet away from where I landed.

Also, we get hedgehogs a lot. One spent about a week living in the lowest part of a clogged drainpipe in my yard.

i've never seen fox or hedgehog wild. you must be in the UK. we get possums in places like that. i had a dog that needed four encounters with porcupines before he figured out that was a loser. i'd never get to see the porcupine, just hear buddy scream and then come whimpering to me to get about 50 spines pulled out of his mouth and face. it only took two bee stings in the face before his niece sweetie figured out to leave those alone.

 

[Sinon]

When I was much younger, I went on a trip with my local youth club to a dry-ski slope. I managed to take a fall on the way down, close to the bottom. There was a fox staring at me from about 10 feet away from where I landed.

Also, we get hedgehogs a lot. One spent about a week living in the lowest part of a clogged drainpipe in my yard.

i've never seen fox or hedgehog wild. you must be in the UK. we get possums in places like that. i had a dog that needed four encounters with porcupines before he figured out that was a loser. i'd never get to see the porcupine, just hear buddy scream and then come whimpering to me to get about 50 spines pulled out of his mouth and face. it only took two bee stings in the face before his niece sweetie figured out to leave those alone.

Yup, UK. My dog also hasn't figured out that hedgehogs are bad opponents. We occasionally get big ones. I let him out to go toilet a while ago and he didn't come back for ages, so I went to find him. He was prancing around what looked like a large rock in the middle of the path. Then it moved, and he freaked out. Ever try to drag a labrador away from something interesting?