Critters Galore!

Next morning, Rich & I are in the bedroom when we hear a loud turkey gobble from what sounds like the living room.  We go there and see a huge tom, with all his feathers puffed and arrayed, on the steps about 5 feet away from the living room windows.  Of couse he started moving away as soon as we entered the room.
Later that day, Seamus was snoozing on the couch when we both noticed an adult ground squirrel making his way up the steps like he owned the place.  Seamus ran to the window and watched this abomination for a moment, then went to the door where I let him out.  Silently, he slipped up to the porch railing, then to the level above where the squirrel had gone, and then the chase was on!  They made several circles around a clump of bushes at breakneck speed, which was hilarious.  Then the squirrel broke for it and ran back down the steps with Seamus right behind.  Fortunately for the squirrel, Seamus was no match for him in speed on a straightaway, and he gave up about halfway down.
That evening, before Rich got home, I noticed a tarantula on the ceiling of the hallway right behind where I was sitting.  It was about 3 inches across.  We tend to get the little (har) ones in the house, but we've seen some in our neighborhood that are 5 to 6 inches across.  (Once we found a big one crossing Engineers Road - I'd almost run over it - and we stopped to usher it the rest of the way across before someone did squash him.  Rich got a twig and approached it, but the dude literally hunkered down, dug his little heels into the ground, and was having none of this noise.  I almost expected to see it grab the twig from Rich and beat him with it!)  Anyway, it's normally Rich's job to catch stray critters in the house, but he wasn't home, so I was forced to catch it myself.  We have a large round tupperware that's perfect for this.  I was so wigged out by the time I got it outside, I just tossed the tupperware and it's cover outside, figuring the tarantula would just crawl out.  I waited 10 minutes or so, when out to collect the tupperware, and found the bug still crouched inside!  When Rich arrived, I started to tell him about the tupperware outside, and went to the screen door and saw another, even larger tarantula clinging to the screen about halfway up on the outside!  I'm flipping out by now.  Rich didn't have the heart to tell me (until the next morning) about the third tarantula he saw on the exterior wall of the house!  They're most likely out running around trying to find some action.
Lastly, here at Altamira we have our own Catch & Release Program!  Seamus catches lizards, brings them into the house, then promptly proceeds to lose them.  Sometimes, Rich or I are able to catch them and release them outside.  (Here's a good trick - if you drop a damp paper towel over a lizard, it won't move and you can pick it up.)  Sometimes they find their own way out under the screen door.  There've been more lizards this year than ever - and they're big and fat, too.  I just had to catch one and let it out right now while I was typing!