I was hiking around on some CREWS land last year. If you don't know, CREWS is an acronym, the exact meaning of which escapes me right now, but which organization is active in land and water conservation in the S. Florida area. They've got a lot of land. So we were out taking a nature hike, focusing on fungi one morning. During the hike we'd seen several black racers. After the session was over, I was walking back to my car, not really thinking about anything, let alone snakes, when I darn-near stepped on a big, fat diamondback rattler which was slowly making its way across the parking lot. I mean literally, I almost stepped on it. So of course the next thing it does is go under my car. Now I've got a great big rattlesnake under my back tire, I don't want to hurt the snake and I also would just as soon not get bit in the ankle. I grabbed a palm frond and kind of poked around and tried to swish the big guy out of there, all of which had little effect. By then, many of the folks who had been on the hike had gathered around. I was able, with their help, to slowly, cautiously back my car away from the snake, who upon losing its hiding spot, went sliding off into the woods. Best possible ending for what was a fairly hairy situation! I'm a snake lover from way back, and there was no way I was going to harm that thing. But too, I did need to get into that car! _+oM

Even though Rat Snakes do dine on small mammals I have not heard of one attacking a cat which would be about four times as large as a chipmunk, or more. Also, contrary to some myths, these snakes do not wrap themselves around prey and squeeze as a constrictor would. While they do wrap themselves around tree branches that is to hold on and is not a means of obtaining prey. Here is a link that might be useful: About Rat Snakes

"All other snake encounters I've had, all I had to do was step back a few feet and wait and the snake would wander off to the brush." This is a great strategy for snake encounters. With cottonmouths (and also copperheads to some degree) I find that they will often continue to stand their ground until they think you have left the area. This is easily solved by simply continuing to back away (paying some attention to see that there aren't other snakes around as you are backing). Most species I move off roads..I can just chase off the road, but with cottonmouths I will gently tap them on the tail with a stick and then back away. They leave once they think I am gone but they usually won't flee until they think the threat is gone. "A female cotton mouth protecting her nest will go after any animal that comes near it... including humans. If you've ever accidentally dropped anchor over one or walked by one on the sand near it, you'd experience it first hand." Cottonmouths give live birth to a litter of anywhere from 1 to 16 young in August, September or sometimes early October (the average litter is 6 to 7). They typically give birth in upland areas and do not have nests in the sense that birds or some mammals do. "Out of all the snakes in Texas, the moccasin is the only one I turn tail and run when I see it." Moving away from the snake is, indeed, a good idea. The most common recommended advice is to back away slowly rather than sprint away. The primary reason is that you can pay better attention to your surroundings if you are moving slowly. Once you've seen a venomous snake and are more than 1/2 its body length away..the snakes you don't see are a bigger danger than the one you can see. Since cottonmouths are locally abundant in places, running away quickly can lead to running so fast that you step on another cottonmouth 15 feet away (this probably matters more in a wilderness area than in a yard where chances are the one you see is the only one around). I don't know of any cases of this happening with cottonmouths, but I do know of an unfortunate case where someone saw a rattlesnake a good distance away and freaked out and took off running so fast that they ran smack dab full steam onto a different rattlesnake that reacted instantly to being trampled on and tagged them. Of course the odds of this are still pretty low, so there probably isn't really much practical difference between turning tail and running and backing away.

In my opinion best advice is to seek treatment for phobia. I had a severe phobia of dogs that I had to get treated and it is very worth it and I think a lot of people that have more "socially acceptable phobias" (e.g. spiders or snakes rather than beloved dogs, people thought I was evil for being scared of dogs! even though I have been up to cottonmouths before and been fine, didn't bother me,... but as a kid I got CHASED DOWN by dogs and attacked so...). We share this world with a lot of creatures, it's something to get used to. Desensitization&exposure therapy is best to build yourself up first before you ever see one. That being said, eliminating brush piles in areas you frequent/maintain a lot, keeping it open will keep snakes out of those areas and make them favor more wild spots. Keeping things open tends to be best for the more cultivated areas of the garden anyway, to maintain airflow. ALSO snakes are often not very active in the day except after rains. They don't like being out in the open especially in the day because one of their main predators, hawks, can see them. I rarely see snakes around my house and I have a bunch of brush lol I've only seen them out at night (there's the cutest baby kingsnake but i digress). avoid times when snakes are most active and you'll be a lot less likely to see them. anyway best of luck treating your phobia, it's a hard road but very worth it to be free of it