Living in my first apartment in Portland's west end I learned quickly NOT to go into the kitchen in the middle of the night without shoes on. I, unfortunately, have had encounters with cockroaches.   There are some very old buildings in that neighborhood and one on the next street was torn down to build a Ronald McDonald House (they provide free room and board for families of children in hospital). When they demolished it you could watch the roaches spread out in waves through the entire neighborhood. Landlord sprayed 2 or 3 times and we still had roaches. I moved not long after that.

Kind of a boring "wildlife" story but hey, I'm a city gal. :-)