[NoCmpromiz]

Beautiful animals who are, all to often, mistaken for "Copperheads"

That is so true. First time I saw one some years back my neighbor told me it was a copperhead and that I should kill it. I didn't think something looked quite right for it to be a copperhead (although we do have them here so it could have been a possibility) so I grabbed a stick and pinned its head so I could pick it up. No fangs in mouth, not a copperhead.

We knew this one was here before we ever saw it. Found its shed in the barn, and figured it was about 3 foot long. You see in the picture that it's about the length of that 36" door.. Lots of mice to keep it happy (and some left over for the furry fourfooted rodent control posse..)

This one had just shed, and still had some of the old coat on it's head. If there's one hanging around, I would assume that there are more, but they keep out of sight for the most part - and probably further back on the 80 acres away from humans. What we do have up close to the house, out in the rose beds, in the rock garden, beside the barn-- in otherwords, all over the place.. are your basic garter snake..

Now, if something would just find our chipmunk population top its liking... ;-)

[Salamander]

People here go out of their way to shoot, club, shovel and run over all snakes.

Outside of my house, the only snakes I see anymore are smashed on the roads.

A couple of years ago the neighbor found the huge rat girl sho lived in our root cellar sunning herself in the lane and cut off her head.

We’re up to our ass in mice, now.

He threw her body in the dry stream bed and I only found out she was dead when I went to get the mail.

She was incredible and had lived here for decades.

At least 8 feet long and as big around as my upper arm.

I wept.

It was -so- uneessecary.

She’d never hurt anyone but rodents.

Several years before that, he weed-whacked the knot of garter snakes who liked to hang in the branches of my willow trees.

Hopped right over the fence and murdered them all...and then couldn’t wait to tell me about the great favor he’d done me.

*sigh*

[Monkey Face]

All pit vipers, including copperheads, have distinctly triangular heads, which is the first give-away as to what one should be contemplating: Fight or flight.