Sometime before my 5th birthday, I walked into the kitchen with a pocketful of baby garter snakes that my older brother had helped me catch. Instantly, my mother was up on a chair, screaming, and my dad was in a chair, chuckling… at least, that was how my dad told it.
As a kid, my daughter loved to catch red-sided garter snakes, make a little home for them and observe them for the day. On one of those days, she caught a snake in the morning, we went out for an errand and when we returned, there were around 15 baby snakes. What a surprise to see that they give live birth!
The occasional water snake in my pond discourages most friends from joining me in a swim. It is hard to convince them that the snakes keep their distance, and I keep mine. Mutual coexistence.
Thank you Diane for the wonderful story! Like most everyone else, I have several fun snake stories. I too have been known as the person who will take care of snakes when needed.
One of my favorite stories was when my 3 little girls were preschool to early elementary age. I had put them down for an afternoon nap, their rooms were located in a walkout basement. Before long I hear a lot of commotion in the basement and went to see why they were not napping. I hear them all yelling "there is a snake!"... Like all mothers, I figured they were playing a trick on me. However, they were quite right...in the hall was a brown ground snake. These are maybe 8-10" long. I promptly picked up the snake a put it in a trash can to take outside. However, I decided to keep it briefly and take it to the girls school the next morning to share with their classmates. My oldest daughter does not like snakes, but is very respectful of those that live in her yard.
What a sweet and eye-opening post! I’m going to try to cautiously appreciate the beauty of snakes next time. I still get uneasy around snakes and mice because of some childhood memories, but it’s good to know I’m not alone in feeling that way.
i love the snakes at our place...even if they do surprise me at times with i uncover them unexpected under something or gliding along my little water feature. This year i found a scarlet king snake several times in different places including up high in a shed! ...the same one moving around OR maybe there is something procreative happening!! so handsome!
Lovely ode to a garter snake and your mother. 🥰 When we bought our foreclosed and damaged house on 15 overgrown acres in 2009, nature was literally living in and growing into the house, everything except deer. Our pride and joy was finding 2 eastern massasauga rattlesnakes in the house here in SE Michigan. I have retrospectively thanked my parents many times for not squelching my love of birds since childhood, but I now realize that I should have thanked them for much more, as of course birds are just one part of and connected to everything else in our precious and dwindling ecosystem. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences.
My mother did something similar, Diane--and also unforgettable. I was 5. We were in church, an evening service, standing, singing. Something flew onto my nose and clung there. My mother bent over and gently tugged it off. "It's a little bird," she whispered, and let it go. "It's a BAT," hissed the little old lady beside me. I've loved bats ever since, and also (like you) bless my mother's deftness on that occasion. ❤ Thank you for sharing your lovely garter snakes!
I always felt lucky that we lived in western Washington state where the Garter snakes are the only common snake. Over on the eastern side of the Cascade Range they have rattlesnakes. A different type of snake for sure. Like you, I had parents who could tolerate snakes without a need to kill them as some people want to do. I will admit to a 'start' when I un-expectantly come upon one .... much as I feel the snake does when I suddenly come around a corner. For years I had a few living in the yard where they liked this or that damp place or an exposed rock or slab of concrete for sunning themselves. In recent years with the loss of my nearby forest and our dryer summer months they are no longer as plentiful. As with many other animals that are now gone forever in this local. So sad to see how quickly humans are deforesting the Olympic peninsula. Each newcomer thinks it can't hurt if they have their lot or acreage cleared. Without someone to show people how fast it is changing I fear a large percentage of our natural forests will be gone forever. The persistence of forest fires each summer only has developers claiming much of those charred lands, never to be returned to nature. We have been fortunate to have a governor who has been very climate forward in his thinking. But we will have someone new with the coming election and it could make a very big difference for our wild life, water ways and wild lands.
My mother taught her children how to handle snakes and to share our wilderness (since I grew up in the woods) with them. I have always watched for snakes and get great enjoyment from seeing them.
Sometime before my 5th birthday, I walked into the kitchen with a pocketful of baby garter snakes that my older brother had helped me catch. Instantly, my mother was up on a chair, screaming, and my dad was in a chair, chuckling… at least, that was how my dad told it.
As a kid, my daughter loved to catch red-sided garter snakes, make a little home for them and observe them for the day. On one of those days, she caught a snake in the morning, we went out for an errand and when we returned, there were around 15 baby snakes. What a surprise to see that they give live birth!
The occasional water snake in my pond discourages most friends from joining me in a swim. It is hard to convince them that the snakes keep their distance, and I keep mine. Mutual coexistence.
Thank you Diane for the wonderful story! Like most everyone else, I have several fun snake stories. I too have been known as the person who will take care of snakes when needed.
One of my favorite stories was when my 3 little girls were preschool to early elementary age. I had put them down for an afternoon nap, their rooms were located in a walkout basement. Before long I hear a lot of commotion in the basement and went to see why they were not napping. I hear them all yelling "there is a snake!"... Like all mothers, I figured they were playing a trick on me. However, they were quite right...in the hall was a brown ground snake. These are maybe 8-10" long. I promptly picked up the snake a put it in a trash can to take outside. However, I decided to keep it briefly and take it to the girls school the next morning to share with their classmates. My oldest daughter does not like snakes, but is very respectful of those that live in her yard.
What a charming time your kids had growing up with you for Mom.
It's known in my house that I handle snakes, he deals with the occasional giant roach.
Charming division of labor. I try to like insects, but truly I prefer snakes to roaches.
What a sweet and eye-opening post! I’m going to try to cautiously appreciate the beauty of snakes next time. I still get uneasy around snakes and mice because of some childhood memories, but it’s good to know I’m not alone in feeling that way.
This is totally heart warming to read. Thank you for your comment!
We need more snake appreciation, thank you for publishing this!
Maybe one person somewhere will consider consciously not passing fear of snakes into the next generation.
i love the snakes at our place...even if they do surprise me at times with i uncover them unexpected under something or gliding along my little water feature. This year i found a scarlet king snake several times in different places including up high in a shed! ...the same one moving around OR maybe there is something procreative happening!! so handsome!
I have never seen (or at last identified) a scarlet king snake. But now I really want to.
Lovely ode to a garter snake and your mother. 🥰 When we bought our foreclosed and damaged house on 15 overgrown acres in 2009, nature was literally living in and growing into the house, everything except deer. Our pride and joy was finding 2 eastern massasauga rattlesnakes in the house here in SE Michigan. I have retrospectively thanked my parents many times for not squelching my love of birds since childhood, but I now realize that I should have thanked them for much more, as of course birds are just one part of and connected to everything else in our precious and dwindling ecosystem. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences.
Beautiful and wise. Thank you for commenting.
My mother did something similar, Diane--and also unforgettable. I was 5. We were in church, an evening service, standing, singing. Something flew onto my nose and clung there. My mother bent over and gently tugged it off. "It's a little bird," she whispered, and let it go. "It's a BAT," hissed the little old lady beside me. I've loved bats ever since, and also (like you) bless my mother's deftness on that occasion. ❤ Thank you for sharing your lovely garter snakes!
This is a wonderful story!
I always felt lucky that we lived in western Washington state where the Garter snakes are the only common snake. Over on the eastern side of the Cascade Range they have rattlesnakes. A different type of snake for sure. Like you, I had parents who could tolerate snakes without a need to kill them as some people want to do. I will admit to a 'start' when I un-expectantly come upon one .... much as I feel the snake does when I suddenly come around a corner. For years I had a few living in the yard where they liked this or that damp place or an exposed rock or slab of concrete for sunning themselves. In recent years with the loss of my nearby forest and our dryer summer months they are no longer as plentiful. As with many other animals that are now gone forever in this local. So sad to see how quickly humans are deforesting the Olympic peninsula. Each newcomer thinks it can't hurt if they have their lot or acreage cleared. Without someone to show people how fast it is changing I fear a large percentage of our natural forests will be gone forever. The persistence of forest fires each summer only has developers claiming much of those charred lands, never to be returned to nature. We have been fortunate to have a governor who has been very climate forward in his thinking. But we will have someone new with the coming election and it could make a very big difference for our wild life, water ways and wild lands.
We are at a breathless gasp in how we get along with what wildlife has managed to survive. It make me glad to read that you appreciate snakes.
My mother taught her children how to handle snakes and to share our wilderness (since I grew up in the woods) with them. I have always watched for snakes and get great enjoyment from seeing them.
You are blessed by nature.