OK
@Murdock picture this... 25 million people in the USA... no more than 25 million in your WHOLE USA.... now do you feel safe?
Honestly, I’ve never felt safe. They have been saying California is going to fall into the ocean since I was in kindergarten. That was the same summer of the night stalker.
But California is a part of who I am. I’m a 4th generation Angelino and this is HOME.
What I'm getting at is we're all spread out here, we don't live on top of each other... animals and humans. We have 9/10 of the most deadly snakes on the planet but spotting one is very rare. No bears or cougars or any big cats.
we fear no animals....not on land at least..
My mom lives in Playa Del Rey and coyotes are a HUGE problem right now. But they destroyed the wetlands to build condos and Dreamworks, which housed most of their food supply and now they are starving and prey on neighborhood cats. My mom just lost her 15 yo cat and was ready to go coyote hunting until she realizes it’s a $15,000 fine.
I was float swimming down a river with my dad and brothers when I was young and came across a rattlesnake in the water. We didn’t realize it was a rattler until he crawled out ahead of us onto a large rock. That was the scariest encounter I’ve ever had. But we learned early to not swim up to logs floating for this very reason.
I had a decent outdoors education as a child despite being a big city girl.