Prone to leaving windows and doors open during fair weather days, a lot of different creatures make their way inside the house here during different seasons of the year. Fortunately, so far, none have been dangerous except for the deer mouse which may have infected me with hantavirus, unless that illness was actually a case of COVID-19. Aside from that, no cougars or bobcats, no bears, no poisonous spiders, no scorpions, no pit vipers.
Tonight's invading creature was a first for me here, though. A black cricket. Common most everywhere else I've ever lived and possibly common here too, but I doubt it. It's the first one I've ever spotted at this altitude and I've been turning over logs and rocks up here for more than two decades now without ever seeing one. Its presence is a pleasant reminder of so many seen elsewhere, from the gulf coast to forested islands of Johnstone Strait, and unpleasant reminder of cricket plagues in Texas when it was impossible not to drive over hundreds at at time swarming beneath street lights, popping under the weight of rolling tires. They make great fish bait too. I used to have a little cricket cage to carry them in during childhood fishing trips.
No harm came to this one tonight, though. I let it browse crumbs on the floor unmolested until it wandered off somewhere out of sight. Maybe it will sing later, which would be nice.
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