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!

"Many of my older plantings are completely vulnerable. I took cuttings, soaked them in water to rehydrate, and planted them in a pot in the ground to see if I can root them." I mentioned this once elsewhere, but will mention it again as it goes contrary to what one would think and might be a vluable lesson to someone else... The same thing happened to me over the winter, Rosefolly, Falstaf starting dying back and, not knowing any better, I thought it might be winter damage...until it dawned on me that dieback was continuing as it warmed up! Touched it and the whole bush came up in my hand! !#$%!#$% What to do? Well, procrastination is always the first thing on my list, so I cut all the dead branches off and put the base in in a bucket with enough water to cover most of the crown. Now, bear in mind, the crown was about 4-5" wide and there was but *one* stringy little root, the rest was chiseled off. Seque to about a month later when I got serious about cutting shoots off for starts (what's the hurry when the branches were still green, eh?). Sooo, I cut off all I thought that I could start and pulled the base out to toss it. Low and behold, the chiseled bottom of the crown was sporting a handful of little white roots about 3-4" long. Good thing! I put it in the ground and it is making a come back while all my shoots got black and died.

Caroline, I had lots of exposure to snakes growing up...my part of Fort Worth had plentiful copperheads, and we always did a lot of hiking and camping. Also, I had lots of relatives who lived in the country. Still, nothing prepared me for the vast quantity of snakes we'd have here. However, we have the Red River on 3 sides of us and lots of wild territory there, so we'll always have lots of snakes....even 30 or 40 years from now. Lisa, I am such a big baby when it comes to some forms of wildlife. I am sure that I would be considered a total failure as a "country woman" by most of the people who grew up here and have been surrounded by wildlife all their lives. I don't fish, I don't hunt, and venomous snakes make me fairly hysterical. I refuse to let locals come onto our property to shoot doves, wild pigs, deer or rabbits (they're welcome to shoot all the skunks and snakes they want). I don't like to eat (or cook) venison, squirrel, rabbits or anything else that has been hanging around the yard, so if someone gives us some game meat, DH has to cook it himself if he wants to eat it. Furthermore, I don't own any camo clothing and I don't plan our social life around the opening of deer season. In spite of all my failures and shortcomings, our wonderful friends and neighbors accept me and love me anyway. I think they just figure you can take the woman out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the woman! LOL In fact, if they hear a cougar roar, or a raucous fight that clearly involves coyotes and dogs and the noise is coming from our property, they come running, shotguns and rifles in hand, to save this fraidy-cat city slicker from the evil whatever. (And I am so grateful and appreciative.) One of them told me that I was "salvageable" because at least I could garden and cook. LOL I also keep them pretty entertained with the occasional "guinea parade". This happens when the guineas roam up the road, and I go after them to chase them back into the yard. Of course, the cats and the dogs follow me, so if you are driving down the road at the right (or wrong) time, you'll see the guineas, followed my me--waving a rake and a straw hat to chase them out of the road--followed by the cats, who keep getting under my feet, and several dogs happily running along, barking and wagging. IT STOPS TRAFFIC. Well, mostly they stop because we fill up the whole roadway and they can't get around us. It also stops traffic because my neighbors laugh until they cry. Life here is never dull, and I (unwittingly) do my part to keep everyone entertained. Dawn

Wow that is a nasty bite. I was thinking about this (people not realizing they were bitten) and there are some people who have neuropathy (nerve damage) from diabetes or other diseases that might not realize they were bitten if a lot of venom wasn't injected for whatever reason. They might not feel the initial pain of the bite but the effects of the venom as they became ill. I got bit by a brown recluse spider one time and didn't know I was bit until the ulcer showed up. I don't have any reason for getting an ulcer on my leg and I was young and healthy. Then I remembered seeing the recluse spider when I was moving some boxes in our basement. Luckily it healed okay. It is common not to feel recluse bites though. Some people are allergic or get infections from them though and that's when the trouble starts. ~sjn