we love them. haven't found any coppers, and would be cautious if we did, but most other snakes get handled if i have gloves on. i've rescued 2 snakes out of our pond netting- one this spring, who reall yhad itself tangled good. it was so calm and let me ease it and cut it loose. 'course, i don't know how smart it was, b/c it got itself tangled back up pretty quick, while i was still easing out the backside. i escorted him to the backyard, since he was a hognosed snake, and had been after our frogs. i will run off big water snakes, b/c i don't want them after our fish, but i don't kill them. we back up to lake easement(read swamp), so we get a good many various snakes over a yr's time. trying to convince our neighbors to call me next time he finds a big one instead of chopping its head off. we celebrate when we find worm snakes- means our soil's doing great! we even kept 2 rough green snakes in our terrarium with the anoles & skinks for a summer. they were the biggest pigs! they were like moving sculptures, though- very entertaining. the thing i found most fascinating, is being solitary creatures, you wouldn't think they'd enjoy each other's company, but the opposte was true. they stayed close to each other and slept all balled into a green mass. they'd fattened up so we let them go in fall knowing they were in good shape for winter. they stayed in the tree i put them in for more than a day- no doubt hoping i'd offer some tasty crickets. the llizards were nervous of them when we first introduced them, but within a couple days they ignored them. we realeased everything last year- got to be too much trouble. it was fun and taught us a lot, though. tam

Pretty kitty Liz. The story of the bat reminds me when we had the antiques mall in the school building, it was not unusual to be standing behind the register waiting on a customer in the evening and to see a bat swoop down from the up stairs and the customers would never notice. The bats were bad too about setting off the alarm at night and we would have to drive all the way into town and check things out. The police would always give us a call and go there. They were nice about it. Anyway glad the snake didn't bite anyone. Sue

They don't like to be held and their tails break off very easily. I found this online: "Lizard Toxicosis Lizard-eating is popularly viewed as the cause of a constellation of symptoms, including hypersalivation, vomiting, fever, loss of appetite, loss of coordination and even death. The Merck Veterinary Manual, however, attributes "lizard poisoning" syndrome to severe infestation by Platynosomum concinnum, a liver fluke. Vestibular Disease Lizard poisoning is described by pet owners as the cause of vestibular clinical signs such as dizziness, imbalance and head tilt, but this is not the only cause of these problems. The same symptoms can be caused by a respiratory infection, or even idiopathic vestibular disease; "idiopathic" is a medical term meaning something that just happens and we don't know why. In short, There is no scientific documentation that blue-tailed skinks are toxic to cats, but there are a lot of claims that they are." I can tell you my cat Boo has gotten sick from the twice with many of the symptoms mentioned above. Our dog vomited a few times and didn't feel well for a few days, but didn't walk sideways like Boo.

I will say that I agree with those who say proper identification is necessary and good. If you live in an area with snakes, it is important to know what the actual dangerous ones look like. As I said before, I know rattlers are in the area and every year there seems to be a few news articles about people getting bit. We also have bull snakes which mimic rattlers, even making the familiar rattle sound. I had a scary moment a few years ago. We were plagued with wildfires due to a severe drought and we had to evacuate our home. We were let back in around 11 that night and we got the kids in bed. A few hours later, I woke up to contractions. I didn't want to bother the rest of the family yet as it was still early labor so I just started making preparations. Packing bags for my kids to stay at grandma's, loading the car with my hospital bag, etc. I was going in and out of the house, leaving the garage door open to carry stuff out when I heard a loud rattle right next to my feet. I like to joke that the snake sped up my labor. It was RIGHT next to the door into my house, curled up under a work bench. Since I was full term, I didn't want to risk getting close enough to id if it was a rattler or a bull snake but now this snake was between me and the only transportation to the hospital I had! I woke up my hubby (not good with snake id) and called my dad (great with snake id) and hubby helped me get the kids ready while my dad came over to investigate. Turns out it was just a bull snake who probably came in the garage when we were evacuating to escape the fires himself. I guess I woke him up and he didn't like it so he was trying to tell me to back off. But he stayed in the same spot for 45 minutes until Dad put him in a bucket and took him across the street and released him. My baby was born a few hours later. I'm glad the snake didn't die. I'm also glad he didn't come in the house when I left the door open!!