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No, I'm not talking about politicians.
I have been working on the house today, repairing, replacing and repainting. I fininshed and went in to wash up. As I walked out to finish picking up my tools, I stepped off the porch (10" drop) just outside the door, and as I did I caught sight of something I am all to familiar with.........a snake, right underneath my feet! A big one, too, about 4 ft. I'm pretty good at identifying snakes because I hunted rattlers when I was younger. I immediately went for my snake catcher, which was only about 20 ft away. I managed to catch it, finally. I took a couple of pics of it so I could identify it. Turned out to be a blotched water snake, non-poisonous, but extremely aggressive, for a snake. I live at a lake, so I see a lot of snakes. I walked him down to the lake and released him. Just about every spring, I wind up catching a snake or two around the house. Usually rat snakes, which are very common in our area. I take them somewhere safe and release them. Last year, I was in my garage, looking through some bins and noticed a snake in one. So, I got my catcher (made it in metal shop in high school 40 yrs ago) so I could re-locate it. It was all twisted around some paint cans and I quickly identified it as a rat snake, so I grabbed the tail end of it (couldn't see the head) and started unwinding it. I pulled out a 5 ft snake! Houston, we have a problem.....there is still another snake in the bin! This one was a bit smaller, so I assume it was the female. They were mating in my garage. I took the large snake across the street and released him by the water. When I returned the other one was nowhere to be found. Hey, they eat rats and mice, so these guys are our friends. I've probably got a hundred snake stories, but I won't bore you with anymore. I love living rurally and seeing the wildlife. I had a gray fox living under part of my house for a couple of months. Had a family of coons living under one of my decks for about four or five years. Sometimes when I'd go out in the evening, I would see three or four of the little ones poking their heads out to see what I was doing. I just talked to them and they would just sit there and watch. Every year there was a new litter, usually three or four.
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