Snake oil is both a legitimate product from Chinese water snakes & a derogatory term for questionable products.
–www.wisegeek.com
Looks like we’re into snake season. I’ve seen more snakes in the past few weeks than I’ve seen in the last decade, or maybe ever. Sam and I were sitting near the windows where I faced the well-house when about eight inches off the ground appeared a creature undulating out from a hole. “Sam, there’s a snake coming out of the well-house wall.”
We went outside to examine the snake further. I looked at the hole except there really wasn’t a hole. The snake managed to ease himself out between an electrical box and the wall; then he scooted off.
We return to where we were sitting when 10 minutes later Sam said, “There’s another snake!”
This time a dark-colored snake slithered under the heat pump. He seemed as anxious to get away from us as we were anxious to see him go. I’m not terrified of snakes. I just want to see them before they see me.
Jack, the cat, has an eagle eye for snakes. In his younger days he was bitten a few times and survived them all. You know even if a snake isn’t venomous it can bite. A veterinarian once told me, “Anything with teeth can bite.”
The late Dr. Harrell Josey was Jack’s veterinarian and the best ever. He’d gently take Jack and turning him over examine his belly with his fingers. He’d part the hair and find a puncture wound, then looking about an inch around the first puncture he’d find another. Fangs.
Nowadays Jack is wary but can still spot a snake. A fortnight ago I motioned for Jack to come up the stairs. He leaned forward with an intent stare. Down the side of the stairs slithered a thin snake.
After this article I’m sure we will never have any company at the Prairie house again, but this snake thing is an unusual occurrence.
Some people don’t think twice about snakes, some are even happy to have “good” snakes around the house. Kathy McCoy showed a phone picture of the snake Mike brought into her kitchen. The snake hung four feet from Mike’s hand and later sprawled out on the kitchen floor.
I don’t think the Bardwells will ever get to that level of comfort with snakes. For one thing we find them impossible to identify. I spent the good part of a morning looking up things like “Southeastern snakes gray and yellow.”
The answers I got were black racer, gray rat snake, gray water snake. I couldn’t tell the difference so I had no idea what our snake was.
I did find a site where you can send a photograph of your creature, be it snake or other and send it in via your smartphone. A professional or “citizen scientist” at www.projectnoah.org will identify it for you. I noticed that several people sent photos of skin a snake had shed. Those were identified as “snake skin,” since there was insufficient evidence.
Up until now I have absolutely refused to get a smartphone but now might be a good time to think about it.
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