Lots of very interesting sightings! I am sorry to hear about the gray fox. And I miss seeing deer (but not having a constant fear of hitting them at certain times of the year). We used to have some in my neighborhood who were pretty funny. I guess they were a deer family. They'd come up from the canal/woods area in the mornings as a group, walk up the street and through a neighbor's yard, then return as a group in the evening and go back to the canal. It's like they were going to work every day. I don't know if I talked about this elsewhere. If so, I might have mentioned that my oldest had to go to the bus stop very early in the morning (and no streetlights in the neighborhood) and would occasionally hear hooves clopping along behind her closer than she wished.
Anyway, my latest sighting is (thankfully, not mine! but the info was conveyed by a neighbor) a rattlesnake in our yard. Woo hoo. And our exterminator came for the quarterly visit and found hobo spiders. I know their venom is not considered toxic to humans, but I would rather not. They're over by where some of the black widows tend to hang out. No new tarantula sightings yet. Exterminator confirmed that tarantulas are not the "bad" spiders like black widow, brown recluse, and hobo, which I think are the top 3 arachnid villains, and tarantulas can be helpful. But, he did say that I should watch out if one turns its back on me, because they shoot something out of their behind area (he said something about hair) that goes into the throat, nose, etc. of the enemy. They apparently use this tactic on coyotes. Lots to learn.
I have not yet (knock on wood) encountered a ringtail cat or a scorpion yet.
