Warning: Guard Snake on Duty

Andrew took Slick out of his tank the other day.
It's been months since he's been out.







The reason is because Slick is so curious and active. He alertly keeps his eyes on movement inside and outside his tank.








It takes a lot of nerve to grab a snake who is warily watching you, moving toward your hands to investigate, potentially ready to strike.

A bite from this 4.5 ft. yellow rat would hurt, most likely even break the skin but we know he probably would NOT bite. This we tell our pounding heart.










Slick did well for Andrew so I took a turn too. And Slick only opened his mouth enough to stick his tongue out at us. :-)

Doing the Tangelo Twist

When Andrew was cleaning out his snake tanks last week, I held Tangelo. He hugged back.

I forgot how partial he is to small openings.


Surprise! A snake through my belt loop.



I couldn't talk him out of exiting.






I walked into the dining room wearing my fancy corn snake shorts ornament.

Then he wiggled around front & found another loop - while still residing in the back loop. He really looked like a belt now.

Andrew listened carefully to Tangelo's tale of being a fashion accessory. The bright lights & loud music were just too much for him.

Home Invasion

I was on the phone with my mom last night when Stan frantically gestured me into the bedroom; "Hurry!" so I followed him through my room into the master bath.

"Gotta go, Mom. There's a snake in my bathroom that doesn't live here."

I grabbed the washcloth & picked it up - sometimes non-venomous snakes void nasty smelling stuff when you catch them - then headed out of the bathroom & met Stan, who was entering while pulling on some gloves.
After depositing the cute little fella into Miss Piggy's old digs (we have'ta keep it long enough for our 4-H campers to return & see it), we grabbed the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles & Amphibians and found him there in block 487 and/or 494 (details on p. 652) - a swamp snake!

My guess it that it was up by the house chowin' down on all the smaller-than-my-thumb-nail toads that scatter whenever I go to fetch the newspaper & mail. Stan said it was headed from the bedroom into the bathroom when he saw it so thinks it probably entered under the backdoor. No, we do not have a pet door.

Note proper snake-holding technique, similar to that of a teacup. Extend that pinkie. LOL!

Miss Piggy & Miss Scarlet

But we're not sure that they are female & I guess in the snake world they could be considered married...

Recent additions to the reptile room (aka Andrew & Caleb's bedroom) are this scarlet snake which was rescued from the cats (who have forgiven us for stealing their moving toy) and a hognose snake (aka puff adder) which was found on the campout.
We were uncertain if Miss Scarlet would live due to all the bodily punctures but it is looking better & has managed to down several pinkies. It has not been aggressive at all.
This is one of the snake types often confused with a coral snake even though it has a gray/white stripe rather than yellow.
"Red on yellow kills a fellow
Red on black, you're okay, Jack"
Coral snakes in our rural paradise always have a black nose. For a while we averaged killing one a year.

Miss Piggy provided much entertainment at the campout by first spreading the excess neck skin to appear cobra-like and producing a hiss like something 3 times her size and the end of the tail was curled up tight like a piggy's corkscrew.. It then played dead, over and over again - at least 20 minutes of dying - would've made any Shakespearean tragedy proud. I chose this photo so you could see the upturned nose & curved mouth. This snake has not attempted to strike at anyone and has not played dead nor impersonated a cobra while in captivity. It has chowed down on several toads.

I chose this photo so you could see how flat the underside is. This snake has the roughest (largest scales) skin of any we've held. Excess skin - for the puffing - can be stretched out on each side of the neck. Very interesting snake but not remaining in captivity. It tries to get out all the time & eats frogs & toads which we'd prefer to live in the yard reducing our insect population. Maybe we'll have the opportunity to play with it out on the island in the future.

Life at the Reptile House

What would you do if you suddenly noticed movement as a small orange, black & white snake shaped head with a flickering tongue stretched out from under the magazine rack in your reading room (at my house, the master bath...) then watched the rest of the body saunter across the tile floor toward your closet? And you had just ditched your last stitch of clothing to step into the shower.

Me? I just recognized Ziggy, Caleb's friendly zigzag corn snake, grabbed him, shrugged into my robe & returned him to his owner.

Caleb grinned. "He must have gotten out when I had his tank opened."

Andrew reminded me with a shrug & smile, "Snakes like bathrooms."

Funny. The snake lives at the opposite end of the house in Caleb & Andrew's room & was initially found in the boy's bathroom.

Tangelo, like Ziggy, was once found in Rachel's (hall) bathroom prior to anyone noticing he was out.

Contrarily, when Slick escaped a week or so before a visit from the in-laws, we searched the place, concerned that he would tuck himself into someone's suitcase for a nice vacation to TX. My MIL kept her eyes peeled but he didn't show until about a week after they headed home when he was found in the boy's bathroom trying to hole-up inside their bathroom scale > took some work getting him out!

Moral of this story?
Beware of magazine racks & weighing yourself.
Oh, and you may want to reconsider before visiting one of the necessary rooms in my house...
Sorry!