WORKERS at a dog rescue charity got the fright of their lives when they found a live scorpion in the office.
The venemous creature was spotted crawling just feet away from unsuspecting pooches at the Dog Aid Society of Scotland offices in Edinburgh on Thursday morning.
Clare Rodger realised she was staring at a scorpion but her colleagues thought she was joking.
The cool and quick-thinking 29-year-old grabbed a glass and placed it on top of the beastie – at which point it raised its tail and tried to sting.
Staff from the SSPCA were called and the scorpion is being looked after at Edinburgh Butterfly and Insect World, Dalkeith, Midlothian.
How the unidentified species of scorpion, normally a creature found in the tropics, came to chilly Scotland in January remains a total mystery.
Clare, an assistant secretary at the Dog Aid Society of Scotland, said: “I turned around to check on my dog Henry who was sleeping on the floor next to me and I saw something near him.
“When I got closer it put its pincers up and I realised it was a scorpion, I could believe it.”
The staff initially didn’t believe Clare when she called out that a scorpion was on the floor but quickly took precautionary measures to protect the dogs when they saw the tail rising.
“We quickly grabbed a glass from the kitchen so we could put it over it.
“That’s when it livened up. It started trying to sting the glass and had its pincers raised.”
The sleepy dogs were remarkably unperturbed by the arrival of the scorpion.
“The dogs in the office weren’t really affected by it, they were all sleeping at the time. We moved them out of the room and they just went back to sleep,” said Clare.
She added: “I came in today (fri) and stood in the middle of the office, not wanting to move. I’ve shaken out all the dog beds, empted my handbag and upturned my wellies but we’re all still a little on edge.”
Two officers from the SSPCA arrived within the hour and the scorpion, around the size of a ten pence piece, was collected by Animal Rescue Officer Steph Grant and taken to Edinburgh Butterfly and Insect World.
Steph said: “It’s a bit of a mystery as to how the scorpion came to be there.
“We’ve had instances in the past where we’ve rescued exotic spiders and scorpions found in boxes of fruit originating from overseas, but the people who work in the office haven’t had any fruit deliveries and can’t imagine where it has come from.”
She said, Blackford, the area of the city in which the scorpion was found, is residential so there is a chance it is a missing pet.
Keith Kivlin from the Edinburgh Butterfly and Insect World said: “It’s hard to identify the scorpion because we don’t have much to go on, usually it insects turn up in fruit deliveries we can see which country the fruit came from and begin to narrow it down.”
