So glad that Hissy has found a good temporary home. I've always loved snakes and have had them as pets since I was a child. Later, when I was in grad school and living in an apartment just off campus, my much younger brother brought a rat snake home from scout camp. Unfortunately, my father, who was terrified of snakes, announced that either the snake went or he would go, so naturally I took him off my brother's hands and installed him in a nice herpetarium in my apartment (at which point I discovered just who my friends were and weren't!) Kaa (as I named him, from Kipling of course) stayed with me until I had to move to another location, at which point I found a new home for him.I would love to have a snake pet again, but now I'm in a New York City apartment and haven't the room it would need. I'm hoping that Hissy will find a wonderful new home. Thanks to you for being so kind in rescuing him even though you weren't familiar with snakes!

Not many people enjoy snakes more than I do, but I have to say, even I would not be happy to have one fall on me out of nowhere before I knew what it was. My story along those lines involves a cat house we built on the back of our home years ago, with a kitty door going out to it. A little verandah for our indoor cats, so they could lay on the cat shelves out there and enjoy the fresh air. Unfortunately, it wasn't screened in, but rather, enclosed with a wide mesh wire fencing. This meant that lizards and snakes and many other creepy crawlies could take short cuts right through it. (Though why anything would WANT to cut through a small enclosed area with three large cats hanging out in it is beyond me.) Suffice it to say, many snakes were cat nabbed and carried proudly back through the cat doors over the years. My husband at the time had a phobia about them, and would end up standing on the chairs or the sofa hollering at me to come get the snake (which was almost NEVER injured in any visible way) and take it outside. It was a funny sight. But he got the last laugh. I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night once and stepped right on top of a black racer in my bedroom...in my bare feet...in the dark! There was MUCH screaming and hollering and hopping about coming from ME that time! This one was injured, but definitely still thrashing about. *shiver* THAT will wake you up right quick! Marcia

Krista, I already had had a lot of encounters with snakes in trees before I saw one up on a tomato cage and also up in a tall tomato plant, so I was sort of prepared for it---though there is no way to describe what was going through my mind when I looked at a tomato plant and saw snakes eyes staring right back at me. There is a Murphy's Law specifically for snakes and guns and it goes like this: If you carry a gun with you, you will not encounter a venomous snake, but if you leave your gun in the house, you certainly will see a snake and wish you had your gun. I've learned to call someone to come shoot it and I know my job is to not take my eyes off that snake and let it get away. (It is embarrassing if a friend comes over to shoot the huge, venomous snake you just saw and you've let the snake get away because you turned your head for only a second.) About 98% of the timber rattlers I've seen are not the black phase ones--they are the standard ones with their background color varying from tan to almost a pale yellow fading to white, and then their marking are black. Around here, folks call them "velvettails" because their rattles have a velvety black outer layer. Usually the ones I see are 3-4' long, but I've seen two that were around 5' long and one that was about 6' long. By the time they have grown to be 5-6', they are very big around and are a horrible sight. It was a black phase one that bit Duke on the bridge of his nose about 6 years ago, and to this day anything tubular and black (a water hose, for example) scares him. He also remembers the exact spot where he was bitten and for several years afterwards would walk around that area, not through it, when we were out walking and got close to that location. Carol, I'm glad that your son's dog made it. I don't know why the snakes are so bad this year, but they surely are all over the place. Kim, I love lizards and toads and we have both in the gardens, but snakes will eat them, so keep that in mind. If you have something around that snakes will eat, sooner or later the snakes will show up looking for it. Amy, That is horrible and there would have been a time when I would have thought that couldn't happen. I know better now. One of the guys who works with my husband was taking a shower one day and one came up through the drain thing in the floor of the shower. He was quick and grabbed his cell phone and took a photo of it. It was so creepy. Bon, Eventually you'll encounter a snake you will wish you hadn't seen. I am stunned at how many we are seeing this year. We see snakes all the time....in the woods, in the pastures, in the roads, etc. and have a fair number of them in the yard and garden. This year, though, we are having tons of them in the yard and garden and even have had one in the garage. This is our 16th year here and the first time we've ever seen one in the garage. Long ago one of my neighbors mentioned to me that once he had one come slithering out of his vehicle's A/C vent while he was driving up the road. To this day, I cannot look at an air conditioning vent in the car without thinking of a snake slithering out of it. I kinda wish he'd never told me that story. We used bird netting with very small squares to try to keep the snakes out of Maddie's little Peter Rabbit Garden, and it worked but not the way we intended. We thought it would keep them from entering the garden. It sort of did, but it wasn't that they reached that mesh and turned away. Oh no, that would be too simple---I think they must not have been able to see the mesh or something and they'd try to squeeze through it and would get stuck and there we would be with either a live or dead snake stuck in the bird netting. It was not a pretty sight. Dawn

What a story!!! Glad you got him and hope you are done with snakes for awhile. How brave to actually grab him. I am still at the end of joking by my husband after an incident with a chicken snake that had me trapped in a deer stand! I love hunting and know what to do when I shoot. But every time I shoot, before the smoke clears my husband would be at the deer stand to "check on me". I had at the beginning of this particular season I asked him to PLEASE not coming running before the shot quit ringing. Well low and behold he finally listening...........,at the wrong time!! I was sitting in a richetty old stand,since before the sun comes up, nothing was going on, it was getting late morning and nothing in sight so I stepped out the door for a little relief, went back in and sat down for about another 30 minutes and decided to call it a morning. Gathered up all my goodies and was gonna head out the door, and then I spotted HIM laying on a ledge about ear level. Now mind you I have been in that stand for almost 4 hours and went out once and back in and he was laying about 6 inches from the frame of the door! which my head was at one time only about 6 inches from. I didn't know at the tme it was a chicken snake not that it matters because I don't like any snake! After I finally caught my breathe and was able to analyze the situation I figured it was a no-brainer.......just stick my gun out the window and fire up in the air and my hubby would be right there. NOT...... he remembered our conversation about not coming upon hearing the shot! What a time for him to choose to listen! After about 30 minutes and another shot in the air and another 30 minutes and a shot in the air he finally shows up. And of course he stands there and laughs which REALLY makes my blood boil (just like a man to laugh) He tried to get me to walk past the poor little thing, that was 3 1/2 feet long, finally figured he better get it out and make sure it would never be able to get back in again if he ever wanted to return to camp. And no, I couldn't crawl thru the windows, they were much too small, and I had managed to pulled a loose board off to use as a weapom in case he decided to move. Couldn't shoot him as I didn't know about what would happen at such close range and if I would have blown him on me I would probably still be running. The next season I had a new stand and all cracks filled with that foam that expands and windows big enough to crawl thru!!! I still hunt but the flaslight now comes on and I examine my stand first. I now do most of my hunting with a camera . Love the peace and quiet and connecting with nature and I've gotten some wonderful pics that I tend to not share with my family........don't like hearing them say "What did you let him walk off for?!?!?!?" Maybe one day they too will know why.