A wildlife rescue

Jeff Horton

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4,272
Location
The Heart of Dixie
My neighbor called a few minutes ago and asked if I wanted a snake. Well, no I said. I don't really need one. Then she explained there was one at her tractor and lawn mower shed and she couldn't get to them. I told her it would leave, that she could scare it away. Well that didn't go over to big. :rofl:

So rather than it be killed I went over and caught it. As I was walking back home it occurred to me that this is Wednesday night. I live next door to a Baptist Church too. And yea, there are members in the parking lot. Deep South...... Hummmmmmm :D Snake handling service anyone?

I detoured the relocation though the house to LOML and got her to snap a couple of photos first. And no, she is not scared of them either.

ratsnake1.JPG ratsnake2.jpg

Had to do a little searching but it's a immature Black Rat Snake. Anything that eats rats has a place in my field!! I turned him loose near my pond(mud hole) where there are lots of frogs right now. And quite a few rats around it too.
 
Jeff,

My youngest son loves snakes. While in college he took care of the colleges snake collection which included 1 15'er, some rattle snakes and assorted others. His senior year someone gave him a 5' albino burmese ? python. Anyway, when he asked if he could keep it in his bedroom in our basement.....His Momma told him she'd disown him if it escaped. I told him I had a 12 gauge solution to any snake that appeared outside of a cage within the confines of my home. I also told him I had no problem repairing any hole or damage I might produce. He gave it to the college.:D
 
Good that you were able to find a place for the little guy. They definitely are beneficial critters.

I'm not real fond of reptiles, but LOML likes them. She can't stand insects, but I wear big shoes, so they don't 'bug' me. She handles all the lizards that come into the house, and I handle all the spiders and such.
 
I have kept snakes for short periods of time. Never wanted one to keep one long term. But they never scared me. Well, if I see them that is. I HATE being surprised by a snake as much as anyone. If I can see him I know what is poisonous and what is not.

My worst scare was a 4" or 5" ring neck snake. I was a kid, walking barefoot to the boat house at night.... bet you guess what happened. I stepped on it and I bet I could have cleared a 6' man too!

At least this one has a good place to live. Of course if he makes his to his road he will probably be killed. But they do a lot more good than harm. As I said, anything that eats rats has a place on my little piece of ground! I understand peoples fear but I wish they would leave them along or find someone just to remove it. I caught one a couple of weeks ago at a Home Inspection and moved him away from the house so it didn't end up dead.
 
Since moving to the desert, I'm getting more used to snakes.

There's a 3' gopher snake that roams around the house. He was around last year, and I dang near stepped on him last weekend. I've got a bonafide case of snake-o-phobia, and I have an uneasy relationship with him. I named him Goofy, the gopher snake.

You see, the gopher snake does a pretty good job of imitating rattlers, and there are plenty of those around here, but if Goofy does his job right, well, there's fewer rodents around for the rattlers to be interested in.

I've got a deal with the rattlers. If they stay 50 yards away from the house, they can be the best rattle snake they can be. Inside that area, and things start to get a little more serious.

With the dogs and people around, I know I should be more enlightened and just remove them to a more remote area, but that aint gonna happen.
 
Jeff - glad to see you were able to save the little guy! Don't see many snakes up here but every once in awhile we'll get a 3' garter snake come through the backyard. It's rare - so I always consider that a treat! Snakes never really bothered me much as long as I know they are there. Use to run into rattlers when I lived in Montana and was out hunting. Got to the point while deer hunting that when you walked up on some rocks that the sun had warmed up - you started looking real close. Always found some - just walked around them and continued hunting.

Plus, I have to agree with your statement - much rather have a snake(s) around eating rats than have to deal with the rats!
 
Must be the season! I found a 2 foot garter snake in one of the flower gardens yesterday morning.

They're harmless, of course, and actually beneficial, so I just admired the sleek little fellow and left him there.
 
I can see by the pics that you became friends quite easily.
It looks rather relaxed on your hands.
The best advantage is that they don't meow like cats, don't sharpen their nails in your best piece of furniture and don't go marking their territory with urine, why not adopt it as you did instead of a cat?.:D

P.S.
For those who from this post may think that I hate cats, in fact I love them, so do not get mad at me please:eek:
 
Got to the point while deer hunting that when you walked up on some rocks that the sun had warmed up - you started looking real close. Always found some - just walked around them and continued hunting.

You know what the old-time cowboys and cattle drovers used to say - make sure you LOOK at where you're flopping on the ground. From what I understand, many of the young and new drovers lost a few years from flopping on or near a snake.

I don't particularly like snakes, but I'm better than I used to be - I was so petrified of snakes when I was a kid that I couldn't look at pictures of them in the encyclopedia without getting the willies.

Here's a link to a video my son took a couple of days ago at a truck stop in Washington state of one that slithered across his path--he almost stepped on this one.

http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/kdlaird/Road Pictures/?action=view&current=100_0188.flv
 
What do you think, is that about a 4' path? Good size snake.

Looks a lot like the gopher snake that frequents our house here in nevada.

Acts about the same way when I'm close to it. Just a slow, kind of straight ahead crawl.

The gopher snakes are supposed to be able to mimic rattlers if they feel threatened.
 
Jeff, great save!

My grandfather is a retired Herpatologist, and one year during the semester break at college, he wound up with a large snake which needed temporary shelter. He simply brought it home and kept it in the refridgerator. One morning the housekeeper announced that the plastic box in the fridge was empty, prompting a housewide search. My Grandmother found it in the basement near the washing machine, she promptly grabbed a pillowcase and sacked it up, walked upstairs and said "Harry, here's the darned snake, please take care of it", and the snake promptly went back up the road to the college never to be seen again. (it was the snake or the housekeeper, so you know who won that round).
 
Last Spring, Mida and I were on a trip South, and at a rest stop in North Carolina, one of the rangers had this corn snake. Mida was fascinated with it, had to play with it, and this is the result:
 

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Art, now that is a riot!!

I will only kill a snake if it is poisonous AND where it could bite someone. I have only seen 3 or 4 poisonous snakes in my life time. The last one was rattler while we were out mountain biking. Had the guys in front of my not seen it I would have totally missed it he was so well camouflaged.

We took a LONG stick and encouraged him off the trail so no one got hurt. It was cold and he really didn't want a fight. Kind of slowly headed off down the hill. Had it been around houses I might have done something different. But we figure we were in his home.
 
Jim, that is one that gets mistaken for copperheads. People see the bands on him.

Reminds me of my Grandfather, a farmer all his life. He had a snake that lived in his barn, in the corn crib mostly. He hated snakes but he wouldn't kill that one because he ate the rats which ate his corn.

I remember him being in the crib getting corn for the cows and yelling out a non COC approved phrase. We thought he was hurt. But he had just seen his non COC approved snake as he called him. :rofl:
 
Good job Jeff! I'd have done the same thing. LOML had to drop off something to her boss's sister (he lived out of town and she was local). We'd never met and when we pulled up they were in a tizzy. There was a 6' black snake on their deck and her and her husband were terrified!

I got the snake and was going to move him to the woods, but they said "No Way!" I had the snake wrapped around my arm and drove down the road until I had a place I could let him go. By this time he decided my arm was nice and warm and didn't really want to, but I said he had to anyway!

I would have let him go at my house, but my Airedale would have had him for lunch!:eek:
 
Well I am in the minority on this one, but its against Johnson Family Law to see a snake an NOT kill it. It does not matter that Maine is the only state that does not have poisonous snakes, they still must die.

I was doing good this year, not seeing one until yesterday. It was only about six inches long, and I had to look real hard to see if it was a snake or a big worm, but once I confirmed it was a snake, (from a safe distance of course) it was quickly pummeled by big rocks until it died.

Travis 1-Snake 0

Still I am fearful. Since it was so small, that means its mommy and daddy are lurking out there somewhere, along with its other brother and sisters, ready to appear at the most inopportune time.:eek:
 
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