Fragments From Floyd

I guess my earliest snake stories here went all the way back to herpetology in grad school. That first summer of blogging, I also told about how snakes slithered their way into our lives (and our apartment) during our first week of married life. And this time last year, we had one over our front door.

It's that reptilian time of year again, and legless Ol' Brer Snake joined us last night on the front porch for supper. (I'm willing to bet this is the same individual we found over the lintel looking for Phoebes this time last year.) Well, one visited with me and Nate, but Ann dined inside alone after we pointed out our approaching guest climbing up the foundation just off the porch at dusk.

Nate has seen me catch a few snakes and heard yarns about quite a few others. But he'd never had the opportunity to try it himself. He asked a lot of questions, like "What's the worst thing that can happen?" We speculated on this specimens overall length and decided it was close to five feet tip to tip. He reviewed the basic biology of non-poisonous snakes (King Snakes in particular) with queries about the presence or absence of flesh-ripping fangs, and exactly what was 'musk' and how stinky was it? and once you have the snake wrapped around your arm, how do you let it go? I could tell we were building to a moment of decision.

"I'm gonna do it!" He announced, after inciting his courage and curiosity to the critical point of action--this, to his mother's dismay, and my proud, fatherly, delight. I slipped inside the front door and got my camera while Nate came out the back door and around the corner of the house behind the snake.

As you can see, nothing fancy here. He just reached out and grabbed it--probably too far below the neck were it a more aggressive snake. It turned its head his way. It could have struck. It didn't. Yes, his arm was pretty thoroughly "musked". Yes, he did have a bit of a job getting the constrictor unconstricted. And yes, he was more than a little pleased that after 25 years, he finally was a bona fide snake-handler like his old man.