snakes....no offense to snake lovers but

[malta blue]

I just don't like 'em.

My daughter would love to have a snake.

I recall using the restroom at a friend's apartment in college and coming face-to-face with the boa constrictor I didn't know he had, which enjoyed draping itself on the shower rod. The snake casually lowered itself and scared all that is holy and sacred out of me!

Egypt the rat terror and I were just out on the lawn. I was sitting in the grass and we were doing some training when I lost her attention to the grass. Oh yes. there is was...this skinny striped garter snake, no more than 24 inches long just slithered over my shoe

I jumped up, and Egypt just kept pouncing on it. It coiled itself up and then launched itself in the opposite direction. She tried to catch it, but lost it in the grass. I watched the grass move until I knew it had gone into the woods.

About an hour later, I see her outside flinging snake around lawn. Said snake escapes only when I go out to retrieve dog and force her inside for 5 minutes....

Note to self: ALWAYS train in gazebo from now on....

[bicentennial_baby]

1. I'm used to Garters, although it's always a surprise, but

an unannounced Boa in the bathroom would freak me out. I used to let my friend's Boa slither all over me, but at least I knew he was coming beforehand.

Shower rod? Oh hell no! :o

[malta blue]

2. Hell to the big NO

It was almost 20 years ago but I remember it like it just happened.

Imagine a little "fine colombian" and then a trip to the potty....BIG snake lowers itself slowly...

I screamed like a horror movie victim. Who'da thunk a farking snake would be hanging on the curtain rod???

[bicentennial_baby]

4. Oh, that makes it MUCH worse!

I'm sorry but :rofl:. I hope you understand. I'd have had the same reaction.

Snakes go everywhere. I remember having to saw the couch in half when aforementioned Boa wouldn't come out and was wrapped around the coils. :crazy:

[MonkeyFunk]

3. I've had a few pet snakes

I love 'em. Had a big python in college, and later, a ball python - about as gentle a snake as you can find.

[malta blue]

5. I can handle a snake if I know it is there...

True story...

In Belize, my friend was on a project in the bush and there were Fer de Lance everywhere....

Cohorts decide to plant snake near friend....friend in experienced bush-chopper and finds the fer de lance, kills it because it is way to close to camp, finds out it was a plant and really plants snake in scary spot for the jerks who thought it would be funny to place venomous snake near camp....

[woo me with science]

6. I could not feed the cute little mousies to them. nt

[madeline_con]

7. Funny visual of Egypt.

"I see her outside flinging snake around lawn." :spray:

[MadrasT]

8. Once I was hiking

When I was about 20 years old (ages and ages ago), with a friend. Down at Pinnacle Overlook in S. Lancaster County (PA). On a trail in the woods, I stepped over what I *thought* was a small log.

Then it MOVED.

I jumped about 3 feet in the air and actually yelled...




(get ready)




"EEK! EEK! a SNAKE!!!" :rofl:

Who actually says, "Eek, eek!" out loud? :rofl:

In my defense, it was pretty big. It stretched the whole way across the trail and had to be 4" in diameter. At least it seemed huge at the time.

[RushIsRot]

9. I found a small 18-24 inch rat snake slithering across my floor the

other evening. It got under a refrigerator. I looked for it, but it did not come out. Then I sat down at my computer and out it came. I had a litter-grabber that I used to catch it and took it to the front door. It got loose, but I caught it a second time and got the little guy outside. Still have no idea how or where it got in. I will not touch a rat snake because they can be rather testy critters.

[sasquatch]

10. You'd hate my Christian Fundamentalist brother then?

:D

[Arkansas Granny]

11. Snakes don't really bother me and I think the little green garter snakes

are really pretty. I've never considered keeping one in captivity, but I have several snakes in my yard that I watch for when I'm doing yard work. I've seen them anywhere from 3 inches long to a little over a foot long. I'm not sure what they are, just little gray-brown snakes that like to hang out in the flower beds. I figure that they must be looking for bugs.

I think my attitude about snakes came from my dad. We had a lot of black snakes that hung out around the barn, but every now and then we would find one in the house. We would have to capture it and return it to the barn with the admonition "Don't tell your mother". He wouldn't allow anyone to kill one because his theory was that black snakes discouraged copperheads and other poisonous snakes from locating on the property. I don't know how true that was, but we never found any on our place while our snake killing neighbors often reported finding them. We would lose a few eggs and an occasional baby chick to the snakes, but we considered that a fair trade off for the rats and mice that they kept out of the animal feed.

[malta blue]

12. that is a great story.

I think they are pretty too, I just don't like the surprise factor :shrug:

Mr MB watches out for them when he is mowing, but last week he knows he got one with the mower. He felt so bad. :(

I think there is a nest near my weeping willow. That is where he found it last week and that is where Egypt was last night flinging one up in the air. I felt bad for the snake. I hope they move to the woods so that the dog can't get them anymore.

[Rhiannon12866]

13. I'm not exactly a real snake lover, but not afraid of them, either...

When I worked at The Great Escape, back in the day, there was a water snake that used to sun himself on the dam at the end of their little river there, where we used to drive the swan boats. When I drove the train by there and would see him, I'd stop and shoo him back into the water, so he wouldn't become a target. I'll have to tell you the story about how my father and I saved the snapping turtles there... :-)

A boa constrictor would intimidate me, though I have a pic of my grandmother with one around her neck, and when we visited the Western NC Nature Center, I adopted the corn snake for her, since she held and petted him, though I think she just liked talking with the reptile guy, who was very friendly, LOL. My Nana became the corn snake's official "pet parent," LOL, so I guess I'm not afraid of snakes, thanks to my Nana, but I can't see Egypt dealing with them, or Jack, who gets into enough trouble, sans snakes...:scared:

Little mb will love the new pup, and he'll put pet snakes entirely out of her mind...:hi:

[malta blue]

14. what on earth are you doing up at 5am?

:rofl:

I love that tale of your Nana.

[Rhiannon12866]

17. I'm an insomniac, is all, haven't been sleeping much, lately.

And I have numerous amusing tales of my Nana. I had her until late 1998, was fortunate in that. Her funeral was on her 98th birthday, and I was fortunate enough to either hear about or share her adventures, and she had quite a few...:D

[RebelOne]

15. I love snakes. Once had two 7-foot boas as pets.

They make great pets. They don't bark or shit on the carpet. And you only have to feed them every few weeks.

[Rhiannon12866]

26. Sounds like a good deal to me, as the mum to two dogs, one big and one small.

They do all the things that you name, despite doggy classes. But what do you feed them? I was also the proud owner of a rat and a mouse, the rat I rescued from my experimental psych class and my mouse was named after Franklin D. Roosevelt. That's my only issue with snakes...:shrug:

[Midlodemocrat]

16. Note to self. Don't go outside ever again.

:scared:

I hate snakes. :scared:

[Raffi Ella]

18. ew! Yeah, me either.

My dog chases them too! I walk her off leash in the woods behind my house on trails. I see a lot of snakes, mostly black racers and black rats but I have seen copperheads and water moccasins. If Sophie sees them race off she goes after them. I've never seen a dog do that before.

I use to have a real phobia about snakes. I would tremble and start to hyperventilate but as I've seen more and more of them in real life and watched their behavior that fear has lessened. It's still there but not so much. Well unless one is close to me and I don't know it - oh hell, they scare me, period. lol.

[southpaw]

19. I LOVE my snakes

We currently have 5!

Appleseed, a female Abbot's Oketee Corn Snake
Sorbet, a female albino Oketee Corn Snake
Motley, a female Sunglow Corn Snake
Pudge, a female Western Hognose
and Z (pronounced zed), a male Taiwanese Rat Snake

I'll try to post pics when Photobucket comes back up.

[SallyMander]

20. Awww, I love hognose snakes

I found an eastern hognose out in the field one time - he did his whole "GAH! ACK! I AM TOTALLY DEAD!!! YOU DON'T WANNA EAT A DEAD SNAKE, RIGHT???" routine. Just cracks me up. :D

[southpaw]

21. Pudge has started with the puffing up and hissing business

She's cute as a button, but she will sometimes take an attitude to inflate and hiss, and even strike (with a closed mouth, as is typical of hoggies).

Can't wait till she gets a little bigger. She's just adorable!

[SallyMander]

22. "I'm so tough! I'm a cobra!"

They are totally cute. :D

I am thinking of getting a fox snake when we return from vacation later this summer... that is my all time favorite snake!




Edit for picture disfunction...

Second edit - do you have to feed her toads? Or will she eat something else? I don't think i could feed a toad...

[southpaw]

24. No toads... just frozen/thawed mice

Pudge is captive bred and eats thawed mice. Right now, she takes 1 or 2 large fuzzies a week... but she's growing fast. At full size, she'll be taking adult mice.

The fox snake is GORGEOUS! Where are they from?

My dream snake is a big, black Indigo with a slate blue belly!

[SallyMander]

25. Gotcha - that's a relief

I also completely adore toads. :D

Isn't the fox snake awesome?? That's an eastern fox - they are only found around the Great Lakes region. I took that pic on one of the islands in Lake Erie. They are also super docile. The western fox has a bigger range, out through the Plains states, but they're not nearly as pretty.

Aww, indigo snakes are beautiful. That's one i've never seen in the wild!

[skygazer]

23. "All that is holy and sacred"

THAT'S what you call what you do in the bathroom? :wtf:

:rofl: