TheBanyanTree: Snakes Alive!!

[Sachet]

Dang, Pammie. Your story makes me scared to go in your parking lot now. :-)

I am surprised to say that I screamed like a girl this week, not once, 
but twice when a snake slithered over my foot on the back deck. 
Thankfully, it wasn't another Copperhead but instead it's the little 
Southern Ringneck who resides there. He's a cute little guy. I did not 
think his brethren was at all cute when I found one in Chelsea's bedroom 
when she was a baby, though.

We'd have to ask Mikey, but I think most of us have an inbuilt 
instinctive visercal reaction to snakes. Probably a smart survival 
instinct since most of us don't know what Mikey knows and can't handle 
them safely.


On 7/12/2011 2:50 PM, Pam Lawley wrote:
> My friend Mike is a perfect example of somebody who loves and appreciates
> snakes for the slimey reptiles they are!  He has taken some beautiful
> photographs of the things, and I've even seen him handle one on the walking
> path first hand!  But alas, for reasons totally unknown to me, I was born
> with a snake phobia.  There was nothing in my youth of early years to feed
> that phobia - it just was.  And still is.  I've tried through the years to
> face the fear, I have.  Once I even sat down and allowed a young Marine's
> 'pet' Boa to crawl on my lap and around my waist.  I "petted" it with one
> finger and told it that it was a "nice snakey and tried to be calm and not
> breathe too deeply lest I freak the snake in any way.  I had taken most of a
> day to move from across the room to actually sitting with the snake, and
> then some smartass JACK ran up and yelled, "SNAKE!!", and I freaked out and
> never went near the snake again!!!
>
> Anyway, I had a very deep fear of snakes.  Deep to my core.  And then:
>
> I walked outside earlier to my car in the parking lot, and there was a girl
> about thirty feet in front of me.  Before she stepped off the sideway while
> crossing to anther part of the parking lot, she stopped, turned around, and
> yelled to me, "There's a snake!!"
>
> First, I stopped too!!  Then I cautiously walked towards her and asked where
> it was.  She pointed under a big white pick-up truck one row back.  I could
> see a dark snake moving slowly, and a couple of times I watched his little
> head lift up and 'snif' the undercarrage of the truck.  As I watched it snif
> around a third time, I realized I'd been really watching the slimey thing
> slithering upwards, and it disappeared!!!!!!!
>
> The snake was now somewhere up under the truck.  Meanwhile, the girl -
> Allison! - was on her cell calling back into the building to get another
> co-worker to come out and de-snake the area!  (Coincidentally, just last
> week this same chick was getting ready to leave our building when she saw a
> snake laying on the walkway in front of the door!  They called animal
> control for that one!)  So while we stood there waiting for this guy to come
> out, I was feeling very creep-crawly and freaked out realizing that this
> snake was somewhere unseen, and feeling VERY grateful that it wasn't MY car
> it had disappeared under.  Had it been, there would have been a blue SUV for
> sale in the lot!!!!!!
>
> And then, out from under, we saw that sneaky snake stick his little head out
> from between the hood and start swaying as he looked inside the windshield
> of the turck!!!!!!!!  We screamed!  Then the snake - who didn't hear us
> scream and who could probably have cared less!! - slithered around the side
> of the windshield, over the side mirror, and then back.  Oh yeah... and
> people say some snakes are harmless!  HA!  Had I been sitting in that truck
> when the sweet little snake snuck his head out from under the hood and
> looked at me inside...!?!?!?!??!  Can you say fatal heart attack!??!?!?!
> Can you say 'dead'?!!?!?  Can you call that harmless?!?!?!?!?
>
> And then 'helper' guy came out and 'shooed' the snake off the truck, to the
> ground, and tried shooing him off into the grass.  And helper guy told us
> not to fear, it was only a black snake.  That's all.  Just a sweet little
> black snake trolling around for food!!  Mr. Sweet Snake was about four feet
> long.  Probably had the girth of a big 'sausage dog'... probably, since I
> didin't get any closer to check.  And then helper guy lost track of the
> snake, and then couldn't find him again.  He said the snake MAY have gone
> back up under the truck!  Sure, no problem!!
>
> We stood there a minute or two discussing this snake who had gone under and
> up that truck to come out under the hood and over to the window, and helper
> guy said, 'that's why I tell people to roll their windows up!' - as I looked
> over at my car with all four windows rolled down about four inches!!!!!!!!!
> (It's freaking hot around here!!!!!!)  But, if I have to choose between
> dying of heat exhaustion when I open the door and the heat hits, or of a
> stroke when I open the door and see a snake in my seat - I'm choosing heat
> any day of the year!!!
>
> And so, with the thoughts of that sneaky, slimey, hungry snake crawling
> around the white truck, I had to go to my own vehicle with the windows down
> and do a  complete search.  I was afraid to stand by my vehicle and look in
> lest Mr. Black Snake slither out from  underneath, and I was afraid to get
> IN my vehicle lest Mr. Black Snake had beat me there!!!!  And the whole
> friggin time I had the heeby-jeebies!!!!!
>
> And now, hours later, I *STILL* have them!!!  I will never be able to take a
> step in that parking lot, or get in or out of my car, without looking around
> for snake relatives....
>
> Harmless, my ass!!!  (Sorry Mikey!)
>
> Pam
>