I once told my neighbor Karen that I am not bothered by snakes. That’s true with one notable exception: when the snake—in this case a five-foot-long black rat snake—puts itself nearly beneath the sole of my Converse. I freely admit that I screamed, “YEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!” and jumped a good 10 feet backward. The snake, after uncoiling itself, casually made its way down the creekbed and into the woods. Josh came running in his socks upon hearing my scream, convinced that Tito’s post-neutering stitches had popped. Once he determined that it was just a big nonvenomous snake, he ran into the house for the camera.
Here you can see the size of this sucker. It’s about as long as I am tall (a little over five feet). Black rat snakes are constrictors, but they will strike if threatened. I encouraged Josh to take pictures because my dingdong husband is convinced he is the Beastmaster and could totally pick up a snake like this. I told him that if he did pick up a snake of any kind, I would NOT take pictures, which pretty much put the kibosh on his snake-handling career. If his actions won’t be documented for public display, Josh can’t be bothered.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Stephanie // May 10, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Ewww I can’t stand snakes. Your new creekbed has opened up a whole new world of blog post opportunities (love it!)! The snake is impressive, but I can’t believe you didn’t also mention that other reptile in the photo! Well - obviously snakes give a lot more reason to jump than lizards do!
2 Iris // May 11, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Ha! That other reptile is Josh’s rubber iguana, which he’s has since his bachelor days some 10,000 years ago. The landscapers found it and perched it on the rock. In fact, the whole week they were here they were busy hiding it where one of the guys would be startled by it. We like it out there because it reminds us of a canoe trip we took in Belize, where the iguanas lounge on rocks and logs all day in the sun.
3 Mary // May 16, 2008 at 10:53 am
LOL! Iris, I’ve seen two black rate snakes on my porches in two weeks - one of them was about 6 foot long! I’m not afraid of snakes, either, but I kept some distance between us!
4 Iris // May 16, 2008 at 11:00 am
Mary, I immediately thought of you and your snaky porch when this one turned up! I wondered if you had ever screamed a crazy scream when they surprise you. You strike me as a pretty cool customer, so I’m guessing not. However, you don’t mention how much zoom is being used to get your snake shots…