I've always been scared of those slithering members of the reptilian family. Never had any use for them, none whatsoever. As a farm kid growing up, our family lived by the motto "the only good snake is a dead snake". I watched a big fat bull snake become even bigger and fatter one summer day as he systematically ate nearly ALL of our little baby chicks one by one. Since that day, I pretty much vowed that any snake I came across would soon become a "dead one". But after yesterday, well I am starting to think somewhat differently.
I made the 160 mile journey this past weekend to Oklahoma City to meet my Facebook friend, Kyle Duncan. Kyle and I have been friends on Facebook for sometime now but we have never met, that is before yesterday. One of the interesting things that I learned right away about him was his interest in breeding snakes, in particular pythons. Of course for me, "snake hater" that I have always been, I could hardly imagine anyone wanting a hobby like the breeding of snakes. Quite honestly, I thought he was crazy!
As time went on, I continued to read his posts on Facebook and look at the photos he took of his "hobby" and realized that hey, this guy might "have something" here. Could snakes perhaps not be nearly as bad as I had thought they were? Did they really serve some kind of useful purpose in this life? Had I been misinformed all along? The only way I knew to find out was to go and meet this guy, this lover of snakes. Turns out, it was the best thing I could have ever done.
Hey, meet Kyle Duncan, my new friend from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma~ He's quite a guy and it only took shaking his hand yesterday afternoon when we met to understand his sincerity, his deep desire to educate people about snakes. One of the most educational and informative hours of time I have spent in a long, long time. So glad that I went.
Suffice it to say that Kyle has been a lover of snakes for a long, long time. And not only does he love snakes, he also loves to educate people about them as well. When he learned of my extreme fear of them, Kyle invited me to come down to OKC from my home here in south central Kansas, to check things out for myself. I have to admit that I was skeptical about it at first, but it only took a few moments of being there before I realized that maybe, JUST maybe I had been giving snakes a bad "rap". I was soon to find out.
I learned so much about snakes in that short hour's time, more than I could share in one blog post. But perhaps the most important thing I came away with is this~Snakes have a place, a purpose in this world and without them, we "humans" would definitely see the difference. I came away from Kyle's house actually curious to learn more about them. So I headed online when I got back to Kansas to see what I could find out.
I decided to learn more about my "arch enemy" Thamnophis sirtalis", the common garter snake. It didn't take long for me to figure out why I usually dig one up bare-handed as I work in the flower beds just adjacent to the east side of my house. It seems as though every single spring planting season I have come across not just one but three or four of them huddled with one another. I was always sure that they must have had a "snake family meeting" about February with the sole purpose of deciding which one of them would scare me the most. And let me tell you, it ALWAYS worked. So for those of you who, just like me, are riled up by "close encounters of the awful kind", here's probably the MOST important thing I learned and will always try to remember~Those garter snakes are not going to hurt me, they have NO interest in attacking someone and devouring them for their lunch. I don't have to kill them and IF they should surprise me like they always do, no amount of my panicking or yelling will make things better. I need to just leave them alone and trust me, they won't hang around long at all. Garter snakes have much "bigger fish to fry" than a crazy middle-aged schoolteacher from Kansas.
After yesterday's experience, am I still scared to death of snakes? Really, not so much. I'm not 100 percent cured of my fears but I do believe that I came a LONG ways yesterday in how I perceived them to be. Standing alongside boxes containing some of the largest ball pythons I've ever seen was a giant step for this old "snake hater". To actually feel comfortable enough to even dare to touch one with a finger of my hand was unbelievable. In my wildest dreams, I never imagined holding one my lap and allowing it to "snake" (LOL) its way up "old lefty". But I did it! I will always have a healthy respect for snakes from now on.
By the way Kyle~as I typed these words I realized just how great of a teacher you are. Great educators inspire those that they teach to leave the classroom and learn more about things that they know little of. Yesterday, your snake house was the arena for learning. Wow, I didn't think of it in quite those terms yesterday. Thank you my good friend for helping me to realize what ignorance about something can do in this life. I will probably never love snakes as much as you do, but I don't have to hate them either.
Have a great day today, friends and family! Even with all of the bad things that fill the paper and the broadcast media these days, the world is still filled with way more good than evil. And hey, here's an idea....why not learn something new today? Yeah, yeah, yeah I know it's the teacher in me.
eggs that will be hatching out soon
holding my first snake~finding out they don't feel slimy at all!
Kyle Duncan-snake guy extraordinaire
I was doing pretty good until it started working its way up my left arm. Wasn't sure what I would do if it decided to look me straight in the eyes! At least I didn't have any bad dreams about it last night.
I decided to learn more about my "arch enemy" Thamnophis sirtalis", the common garter snake. It didn't take long for me to figure out why I usually dig one up bare-handed as I work in the flower beds just adjacent to the east side of my house. It seems as though every single spring planting season I have come across not just one but three or four of them huddled with one another. I was always sure that they must have had a "snake family meeting" about February with the sole purpose of deciding which one of them would scare me the most. And let me tell you, it ALWAYS worked. So for those of you who, just like me, are riled up by "close encounters of the awful kind", here's probably the MOST important thing I learned and will always try to remember~Those garter snakes are not going to hurt me, they have NO interest in attacking someone and devouring them for their lunch. I don't have to kill them and IF they should surprise me like they always do, no amount of my panicking or yelling will make things better. I need to just leave them alone and trust me, they won't hang around long at all. Garter snakes have much "bigger fish to fry" than a crazy middle-aged schoolteacher from Kansas.
After yesterday's experience, am I still scared to death of snakes? Really, not so much. I'm not 100 percent cured of my fears but I do believe that I came a LONG ways yesterday in how I perceived them to be. Standing alongside boxes containing some of the largest ball pythons I've ever seen was a giant step for this old "snake hater". To actually feel comfortable enough to even dare to touch one with a finger of my hand was unbelievable. In my wildest dreams, I never imagined holding one my lap and allowing it to "snake" (LOL) its way up "old lefty". But I did it! I will always have a healthy respect for snakes from now on.
By the way Kyle~as I typed these words I realized just how great of a teacher you are. Great educators inspire those that they teach to leave the classroom and learn more about things that they know little of. Yesterday, your snake house was the arena for learning. Wow, I didn't think of it in quite those terms yesterday. Thank you my good friend for helping me to realize what ignorance about something can do in this life. I will probably never love snakes as much as you do, but I don't have to hate them either.
Have a great day today, friends and family! Even with all of the bad things that fill the paper and the broadcast media these days, the world is still filled with way more good than evil. And hey, here's an idea....why not learn something new today? Yeah, yeah, yeah I know it's the teacher in me.
eggs that will be hatching out soon
holding my first snake~finding out they don't feel slimy at all!
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