Let's get is straight ! It's COTTONMOUTHS that I have a problem with, not RATTLERS! Evidently, you haven't had a run-in with a cottonmouth. If you had you wouldn't be belittling me. Go ahead and laugh, but remember what you said the next time you come "face to face" with an angry cottonmouth who is swimming toward you. Another thing. There's a religious cult in Alabama, "snake handlers" they're called and you know what, over the last 15 years 9 of them have died from snake bite. Guess those rattlers misinterpreted their kindly actions. I too have kept snakes as pets. I don't love them, but I do like them. Used to have a green snake about 3 feet long that I took to school with me. Kept her inside my T-Shirt. Every once in a while she'd poke her head out of the neck just under my chin to see what was going on. The other kids tho't it was cool, but not my teacher!
Also used to catch a bunch of ringneck snakes in the spring and take them to school and sell them for fifty cents apiece. I caught and kept plenty of snakes in cages in the nature areas of all the Scout camps I directed over the years too. Even had a pet 8 foot Rat Snake I called Big John. He would come crawling out from under the dining hall at Camp Palila each year when I first opened summer camp. He knew I'd keep him in food. Big John was the most gentle creature I've ever been around. The Scouts would pick him up and wag him around all over camp, and not once did Big John offer to bite any of them. All he wanted was a mouse every once in a while. Didn't keep Big John in a cage. Didn't have too! He had a good deal going and he danged well knew it! Most times I could find him curled up in a shady corner on the big stone front porch of the dining hall. Ocassionally he would venture into the kitchen looking for a hand-out. Nobody got scared, for they all knew Big John and how gentle he was.
So, don't jump on me about my snakes. I've been there, done that, got the T-Shirt, the Cap and the Patch to boot! I've seen the Good, the Bad, (yes I've been bitten by a big rattler), and the ugly about snakes. In closing let me say this. I don't go looking for poisonus snakes to kill, but I will defend myself when it comes to cottonmouths, the others I'll go around. The only time I carry my shotgun pistol is when I'm wading in cottonmouth country. Do I shoot a cottonmouth who's sunning itself on a limb just off the water? NO!, But the minute that sucker dives off that limb and heads towards me, it's curtains for him. Like I said earlier, a cottonmouth can and will bite you under water.
END OF DISCUSSION.
JIMMY D
Rob Blomquist wrote:
I love snakes, even the rattlers ,that Jimi is such a scaredy cat about. I mean, I really mean, it makes me laugh that a big guy like Jimi is such a twicher that he has to carry guns to fend them off
Other snakes will know it, and smile at you, if you have handled snakes lovingly and you aren't toting a gun. They will give you more space. Kinda like Steve is talking about. He seems to have good snake karma.
