Posted on 06/21/2013 1:08:29 PM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
What a beautiful animal. But then, I have always found most snakes to be so, venomous or not... Well - except moccasins : o There is something about them that just gives me the willies : /
Anywho - thank you for the beautiful picture, and a new word to look up :}
And thank You Lord, for so many cool critters.
Tatt
I will never understand why some folks are driven to kill something that never in a million years would hurt them : / Last winter, we lost our local rat snake to an unfortunate encounter with a very sharp implement. I do try to give the benefit of the doubt, and hope that it was an accident, but it is hard.
Please Lord, watch over us.
Tatt
Looks like a corn snake. As far as snakes go, they are supposed to make good pets.
The dreaded potato snake. :-)
Nope.
As usual.
Before he died, my dad sold his mountain and cabin to a guy who runs a ‘make a wish’/’Christian hunt club’ thing.
[supposedly]
Happily he doesn’t live there 24/7 so some critters make it across the “perilous” dirt lane in front of my house.
Slinky had the misfortune of coming out of hibernation and sunning himself there on the day that one of his hunt buddies was visiting.
They know I’m livid.
He hasn’t been around much since then and when he is, he avoids me.
It’s just a snake, right?
[a wild one who curled around my feet and let me touch him]
Wouldn’t have been near as bad if the punk who smashed him hadn’t spun his wheels and tore all the skin off his back.
I just hope he didn’t linger.
Unless their heads are crushed, they can suffer a long time before they die.
Go look up ‘blue eyed leucistic’ and ‘black eyed leucistic ball python’.
You’ll flip out over the latter.
Coolest snake eyes *ever*.
:)
I did have a huge old female rat snake who’s been here for over 30 years but the neighbor decapitated her 2 years ago.
She was at least 7 feet long and as big around as a ball bat, nearly.
Since she was killed, the rats and mice have had a field day.
Years before that, the neighbor was weed whacking his yard and noticed a group of Garters hanging in my willow tree and came in and wiped them out.
He actually expected me to rejoice.
I have no idea why people kill the things they irrationally fear.
Why do they run over poor box turtles on the road?
Who have they ever hurt?
If there’s an upside to any of the above, all these people now understand that if ANY other critters get killed, I’m gonna hit a level of crazy they never dreamed possible.
They and their cousins the rat snakes are so generally pleasant that I’ve grabbed them out of hay fields and played with them for a day before returning them.
Nice, easy going snakes.
Milk snakes and ring-neck snakes are two other very sweet natured beasts.
They stay much smaller than rats or corns.
Kinda like pocket pets.
:)
If we could find a Lima snake, we could make snake succotash.
:)
LOL!!!
My son used to bring in very small ring neck snakes, not more than 6” or 7” long. I read that they were very slightly poisonous.
Do corn snakes eat potatoes? If not, that must have been one mighty hungry snake!
Wow!! They are both SO beautiful! It’s interesting that the absence of pigment/pattern seems to highlight their anatomical beauty even more! It did get me to thinking though - are there any negative effects from the mutation? I know my pink eyed white rats had VERY poor vision, which is saying something, lol, since rats in general don’t have the greatest to start with : o
Sure hope not, cause the look is darn amazing :)
Thanks for pointing me in that direction.
Blessings to all legged and non, up your way ; }
And prayers that your ever helpful neighbor will cease and desist immediately, with all of the “help” : /
Tatt
My home in the city was in a ‘burb on the edge of a huge city park and greenbelt. For about 12 years, there was a big rat snake living under one of the benches in the arbor by the fish pond.
After awhile, it would come out in the evenings while we were sitting out there and not be shy at all-and we never had a rodent problem, even living right there at the edge of the greenbelt. It freaked out visiting relatives a couple of times, but we made it clear that it was “hired” rodent control, and not to be molested.
One day, it was just suddenly not there-we never saw it again. I don’t know how long snakes live, but that one was
the biggest rat snake I’ve ever seen, so I doubt it was young.
Out here, there are very few snakes-likely because of the wild animals and dogs that run loose in spite of the steep fines to owners, and potential of being dinner for the resident mountain lion or coyotes...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.