O.T - Thanksgiving Guest....

[Darwin]

Those are both beauties. I've always thought that the milk snake was one of the prettiest. In my early teens, I had a good-sized speckled king (black with tiny yellow spots) for a while, but couldnt get it to eat anything that I could catch, so I let it go after a couple of days.

My mother wasn't the least bit afraid of snakes and often caught grass snakes and garter snakes, and gave them to me to play with when we lived in Florida. I seem to have spent most of my childhood surrounded by snakes--many of them poisonous.

My earliest snake memory is from New Iberia, LA, just before we moved to Florida. We lived among huge oaks, surrounded by thick underbrush, next to a canal that carried surgar cane barges. Some friends of the family had been visiting, and we were all standing around in the front yard just about sundown. My brother and sister were poking around in the tall grass, looking for a piece of rope that had broken off of a swing earlier in the day, and my sister thought that she saw it. Just as she reached for it, our Cocker Spaniel, Big Boy, rushed over and grabbed it. It was about a 3-foot timber rattler. He got it right behind the head, and went prancing around the yard shaking it. Everyone tried to get him to come to them and give it up, but he stayed just out of reach. He was obviously extremely excited. I don't recall how they managed to get it away from him, but he got a lot of praise for possibly having saved my sister's life.

I've never seen an aggressive copperhead, but water moccasins are famous for socializing with folks, and I twice almost picked one up by accident when I was a 12 or 13. Once was while reaching to pick up what I thought was a bean pole from a stack next to an almost dried up rice canal. I was quite startled when it dropped off into the water. (I was planning to use the pole to extract a 3-foot-long gar from the canal.)

The other time I was chasing a swamp rabbit through knee-deep grass and couldn't catch it, so I looked around for something to throw at it, and could see just a bit of about a 1.5" diameter moccasin under some grass stalks. It looked sort of like a chunk of rusty iron, so I thought that it might be something off of some farm machinery. When I reached for it, it started crawling. (Notice a pattern of violence directed against innocent animals here--not to mention a family tendency to pick things up without first examining them closely?)

That's the only time I can recall being scared by a snake. One of my fondest memories is of the Kelsey-Bass oil camp in south Texas, when I was about 9 years old. The camp was huge, like a small town out in the middle of the desert, 40 miles north of Rio Grande City. We had a recreation center, a big swimming pool, a grocery store/gas station, family housing, dormitories for the single oil field workers ("the Gang") and a one-room schoolhouse with grades 1 through 6 (I was in the 5th). Next to the swimming pool was a pair of croquet courts. (They were sand and gravel, though, not grass.) A bunch of parents were playing on one court, and their kids were playing on the other. At some point, someone's mother looked over and noticed that all the kids were off beside a little shed that was raised up on 6"x6" boards, sticking their croquet mallets up under it. She wandered over and said, "What are y'all doing?" "Oh, we're trying to get a rattlesnake out from under the shed." You never saw such carrying on and dragging away of reluctant kids.

I guess the parents didn't know how we spent our days. I had quite a string of rattles by that time. When we were out wandering around among the mesquite and cactus, we never ran from rattlesnakes, tarantulas, scorpions, or giant centipedes--we chased them down and slaughtered them. The only things we were afraid of were "Braymer" (Brahma) bulls and javelinas (peccaries). There are few critters more deadly than a small boy with a stout stick or a sharp rock. A friend of mine even flung a rock and killed a road runner.

All of my rattlers were killed with random sticks, except one that a friend and I were playing with beside a street when my mother came along in the car. When she saw what it was, she made me put it down in front of the car and ran over it. I was quite put out.

Once when I was helping my father measure some pipe that had been installed by Brown and Root at an oil field in north Texas, walking along with one of those wheels with a counter attached to it, I heard a rattlesnake right by my leg. I levitated in one direction, and it went the other way. Although I was 15 at the time, I still wasn't being very nice to rattlers, so he didn't survive the encounter.

When I was stationed at Ft. Lewis, WA, we used to go to Yakima Firing Center in eastern Washington for field exercises. Once while I was waiting for my boss to get out of a meeting in a little box canyon, someone directed me to a bluff up above the canyon that was literally littered with little rattlers. There must have been a couple hundred, at least, none much over 12-14 inches. The rock face was about 20-30 yards long and 10 feet high, and it was filled with vertical and horizontal cracks. It was like a rattlesnake condominium. Every little crevice was just chock full of snakes. It looked like someone had come along with a dump truck filled with snakes and distributed them around the area with a pitchfork. They were all over the ground, too, and every step I took would set a half-dozen to buzzing. I thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. Fortunately for them, I'd given up killing by that time.

That night, a couple of miles from there, during Escape and Evasion training, we ran across several of the little guys out in the fields that we were crawling through. Nobody got bitten, though. It was late at night and pretty cold by then, so I guess they were sluggish.

A few months later, I retired from the Army and moved to the California Central Coast. We don't have much in the way of snakes here. In fact, I haven't seen a snake outside of a zoo in about 22 years. I'm hoping for more in the Dallas area. I hadn't realized how much I miss them until I saw Annie's picture.

[anniemcu]

I have to say that your friend certainly looks longer than a foot. Any idea on how he got into your house -- I assume he doesn't have a key. Do you leave the door open a lot or have small openings leading into the house? I'm personally not a big spiders and snakes guy, and wouldn't be too keen on finding one of those when I reach into the back of the closet. I have always suspected, though, that some of his friends may be hiding behind the boxes in my garage.

I know the copperheads are plentiful in the caves around your neck of the woods.

Will O'Ban

Actually, I think he's more like 18 inches. I was a little preoccupied with figuring out what to do with him, to think of actually measuring him.

We're suspicious that he and his clan have found a nice cosy little opeing between the original house foundation and the office addition's foundation... looks like we have some serious caulk repair to do!

We have a steady supply of copperheads down at the pond... I'm sorry to say that my "live and let live" philosphy doesn't extend to them when they start moving into my personally claimed space. I will just let them be until they take up residence in my pathway... then it's "Katey, bar the door!" I was not the least bit offended to see a large hawk devouring a large copper the other day... quite satisfying really...

[pearl grey]

Aww, pretty snakes!

And Darwin, my goodness, what a lot of amazing stories! I grew up with random snakes around too - and my parents encouraged us to admire all kinds of creepy crawlies - but I don't have any stories as exciting as yours!

I've never had an actual pet snake, and I'd be reluctant to because of feeding him little creatures.

[Whistlin'Dixie]

Our Ball Python, Congo, has been a member of the family for 6 years now. She is a beautiful, gentle creature.

I have to admit I originally balked at the idea of a pet snake, but fell in love with her the minute she was put into my arms.

Ball Pythons grow to a top length of ~ 4 feet, which is about perfect ~ I think some folks purchase snakes without doing their research first, then end up with something that is very very large, and let me tell you, STRONG! Snakes are very muscular, and you're right, when you have a constrictor you do need to be aware of how to handle it.

Mary

As far as feeding her live creatures, well, it was difficult the first time, but you know, she's our pet and she wants to eat, too.....

[aderyn_du]

Mary, is that your birdie in your icon? I'm a bird and snake person too. In addition to Basilisk, the ball python, I share my place with three cockatiels and two parakeets. I have my eye on a beautiful conure, but he'll have to wait.

[anniemcu]

...And Darwin, my goodness, what a lot of amazing stories! ...

I'll say... I may have had nearly as many, but I sure wouldn't be able to remember them readily, LOL!...

...one interesting one though, also involved a visitor in the office (we really need to locate that hole!)... a small, maybe 9 or 10 inch ring necked snake had gotten in, crawled over stuff and managed to get stuck on the tape in the packaging tape dispenser... poor little ol' thing... my husband was trying to figure out how to remove him without taking a lot of skin and scales... we decided to use baby oil on a Q-tip and he kept gently rubbing along the length where the snake was adhered to the tape... it worked... after about 15 minutes, we took him out to the path to the pond and admonished him to avoid human habitations from that day forth... LOL!

While we were building the house, some dozen years ago, I was upstairs, working on insulation. As I came to the corner near hubby's closet, I noticed that the wire box was serving as a perch for a medium sized black snake... again, we were both quite surprized, and I managed to get him safely downstairs and out to the woods. We were both happier ... I think.

[Whistlin'Dixie]

Mary, is that your birdie in your icon? I'm a bird and snake person too. In addition to Basilisk, the ball python, I share my place with three cockatiels and two parakeets. I have my eye on a beautiful conure, but he'll have to wait.

Yes, that is Buddy, our Sun Conure. He is a great little guy, TONS of personality!

I have great admiration of cockatiels and parakeets. Wonderful pets!
We also have 3 cats, and my 2 Chinese Dwarf hamsters that I love.

(One thing about conures, they are VERY LOUD! Although I am good at tuning things out, it should be strenously noted that the noise level could very easily get on one's nerves..... Occasionally, my family complains. Also, birds are messier than most other creatures, and their perches and cages do take up a lot of space.)

How old is your Python? I love her name!

Mary

[aderyn_du]

(One thing about conures, they are VERY LOUD! Although I am good at tuning things out, it should be strenously noted that the noise level could very easily get on one's nerves..... Occasionally, my family complains. Also, birds are messier than most other creatures, and their perches and cages do take up a lot of space.)

How old is your Python? I love her name!

Mary

Oh, yes... I hear you (literally) on the noise level of birds. The flock calling between the five birds can be something! And, interestingly enough, the boys tend to be messier than the girls.

Basilisk is about a year and a half old... we got her as a tiny little baby, and I can't believe how much she has grown. Time has just flown by. (I sound like I'm speaking of one of my children... )

Annie, how's Humphrey doing?

[pearl grey]

Mary, is that your birdie in your icon? I'm a bird and snake person too. In addition to Basilisk, the ball python, I share my place with three cockatiels and two parakeets. I have my eye on a beautiful conure, but he'll have to wait.

Do the birdies and Basilisk get along ok? Or do you not let them loose at the same time?

[Whistlin'Dixie]

Actually, Congo spends most of her time in a beautiful terrarium home that we have made for her.

Buddy our conure ~ it is no underestimate to say that he has TONS of personality.
We have to protect our creatures from him! He has no problem fluttering off his perch to attack our cats.
He puffs up to twice his size when anybody he doesn't know "dares" to come into our house.
I one-time heard "Get him away from me!" in a scared voice upstairs when my teen-age sons had some friends over ~ Buddy had leaped off his perch and run up to one of the kids and bit him! (This is a kid who's over 6 feet tall!) I was amused, but understanding. He bites hard!
Last nite, my sons had (the same) friend over ~ he continues to try to make friends with Buddy, BTW. Buddy looked over at him, puffed up, then went up to one of his toys and "attacked" it, shrieking all the while ~ he is mimicking what he plans to do to the kid, you see.




M

[pearl grey]

Wow, what a great birdie! He sounds like quite a character! Maybe you would enjoy this story on NRP. As an opera lover, I found it hilarious!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4184261

[aderyn_du]

Pearl, that is just great! I loved it.

[pearl grey]

Pearl, that is just great! I loved it.

I'm listening to it again right now (and it's confusing my cats!)

[anniemcu]

Wow, what a great birdie! He sounds like quite a character! Maybe you would enjoy this story on NRP. As an opera lover, I found it hilarious!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4184261

How very cool! I've certainly known animals of serious spiritual, soulful depth. I don't doubt the veracity of exceptional intelligence and feeling in animals... even humans on occasion,

[john swinton]

in the uk you dont get many snakes. In the uk i have only seen 2 grass snakes and a slow worm in the wild.

when i went to australia it was a different matter. loads of the b*gg*rs.
First day i came across a king brown i think

my aborigonal relative told us all to jump up and down and it soon slithered away.

later on my family and i were going along a path in the rainforest and there were all these tree roots that went over the path. my family all stepped over on and I nearly stepped on it. but then I saw its head move and promptly backed away.

that was close.