First snake encounter.

[GarterGuy17]

Well I just remembered the first time I was about a foot away from a snake , I knew it was a rattle snake but I still wanted to get close to it.After looking at the pattern on the baby snake I went and looked it up online to see which snake it was. What totally blew my mind was that the baby snake was an eastern diamond back rattle snake and my brother informed me that they were more deadly then the adults so I kept my distance. This day had to be snake day in Ozark as I saw a total of about 5 snakes that day alone and never before that , The two I remember was this eastern diamond back and one I dont know which species it was. I count very much tel as half of its body was smashed a car had ran it over poor thing all I know it was all black. As for the rattle snake my brother drowned it in our pool I must say I think this is where my love for snakes originates I cant stand seeing them get hurt I really didnt want to drown him but we had some pups in the yard so it was a danger to everyone poor rattle snake and maybe I will find some snakes out there since there is a lot of trees , bushes and water sources. I cant wait !!!

[EasternGirl]

I don't remember my first snake encounter. I do remember my friend Punk Rock Bob had a boa constrictor when I was 18 and living at the beach for the summer. He used to bring her to my house and she would nap in my bed with me sometimes. Probably not the smartest idea...but she was a sweet girl...she never tried to hurt anyone. She was big, probably about 8-10 feet long. Her name was Sybil. She died a couple of years later when the power went out at Bob's house. Bob was wrecked. It was really sad. Sybil sparked my love for snakes.

[GarterGuy17]

I wished it would have been a boa , I would have been able to touch it without having to worry. ;)

[RedSidedSPR]

My first snake encounter involved 6 stitches.

[GarterGuy17]

That sounds like a terrible story but its oddly intriguing :o

[katach]

I was 10 or 11 at my step great grandma's farm. I would spend a couple weeks during the summer with her while my parents went on an adult only vacation. I would take my dog with me and go exploring across the creek. There was really tall dry grass and lots of bushes. I saw tons of what I now know to be NW (T. ordinoides) garters there. I would pick some up and then let them go. My dog would help me find them, but he never hurt them. I loved those summers and I miss my grandma. She passed away this year. The last 8years or so she didn't even remember who I was. She was a wonderful and strong woman. She helped me start my love of snakes.

[GarterGuy17]

Im sorry for your loss , but now I guess we can see why you have 4 of them ;)

[katach]

Yeah. They have a very good connotation for me. They are wonderful all on their own too :D

[EasternGirl]

It's so nice that she left you with such a wonderful gift...a love of snakes. So sorry for your loss too.

[katach]

Thanks! I'm getting a little teary just thinking about her.

[kibakiba]

My uncle let me play with the garter snakes at my dads house when I was 2... Have loved them ever since! Haha.

[aquamentus_11]

I can't remember my first. We had a lot of garters, blue racers and northern water snakes. I was very close to getting a Nerodia, but they seem to dull down in color a lot as they age and get a little too big for what I wanted. The only rattlesnake we have in MI is the Massassauga and I've only ever seen one. I was probably 9 or so, at my grandparents' off in a marsh poking around in some saw grass. Never heard a rattle, but there it was all coiled up and very very tiny. I ran home after that with scratches from the saw grass and told my cousins that it struck at me but missed and only scratched my skin haha.

[GarterGuy17]

I was around that age as well maybe 10 ,11 but this rattle snake was inside the pool and we took him out. He did strike at the cleaning tool a lot , I wanted to let him go but we couldnt luckily it was my brother who found him and not me.

[BUSHSNAKE]

mine were in books, and then i would bust out the pencil and paper and draw them....i still have drawings of snakes from when i was 8 and 9. Then when i was in first grade we moved to house that had a creek at the end of the block were garter snakes lived...i spent my whole younger years along that creek searching for garter snakes

[Selkielass]

As a preschooler my dogs would 'protect' me from the ditch snakes in front ofmy house by herding me away if they could. In later years I stalkedthe snakes in that and other ditches often every summer until the roads andsidewalks 'improved' the habitats out of existence. Must have been Easterns and Butlers.

[PINJOHN]

my first experiences were with grassnakes dice and viperine [natrix] and it was staring at them through glass in Liverpool's premier pet shop unimaginatively called the aquarium, housed on two floors, mammals street level, fish amphibs and reps down stairs.
since a kid i had been smitten with frogs toads and newts mostly newts and every spring would see me ogling the shipments from main land Europe and of course along with all the Euro amphibs would be the reptiles various wall lizards green lizards slow worms sand lizards common lizards and so many more and of course the snakes, they had large ones that i don't recall the names of i assume they were ladder snakes and other large European types but my time was mostly spent swapping between the tanks containing the great crested newts and the grassnakes i could spend hours just staring watching them climb all over each other i think the staff thought i was cerebrally challenged as without doubt i had glassy eyes and a drool soaked shirt front.
while typing this in my one fingered style i have recalled something long buried about that shop, it should be remembered that this was in the days of few restrictions with the import of animals and long before the British dangerous wild animals act.
as you entered the shop they had a baby chimp for sale a real heart steal'er very young and so human like, even as a kid myself i could see the resemblance to a human baby, on a number of occasions this chimp was sold only for it to be back in the shop on my next visit it turned out that it had become so attached to the lady who looked after it it became inconsolable when sold, refusing to eat and screeching and such that each time it was brought back, i have no idea what became of the poor little thing.

[gregmonsta]

Zoos were always a favourite when I was younger. You couldn't get me away from any exhibit that had fish or reptiles in it. Most of the time it was only the carnivores I actually wanted to see.

[Stefan-A]

Used to spend my summer in a place where there were a lot of snakes. I don't remember my first snake encounter, but I'm certain it was an adder. The first live snake I held was also an adder.

[EasternGirl]

That's awesome.

[PINJOHN]

Zoos were always a favourite when I was younger. You couldn't get me away from any exhibit that had fish or reptiles in it. Most of the time it was only the carnivores I actually wanted to see.

ditto Chester zoo was my perfect day out and even as an adult i try to get there at least once a year ..and they now have kamodo dragons yeeeeees

[Didymus20X6]

My first up-close encounter with a snake:

When I was about 10, I had found a huge tortoise in our yard. I was going to try to keep him as a pet, but he got away when I wasn't looking. Thinking it might have gotten into the tall grass near a neighbor's property, I started poking around in the tall grass. As I was walking along, I happened to look down beneath my feet and saw a huge black snake looking up at me. I sprinted back inside, not knowing what kind it was, and got my mom. We barely caught a glimpse of it as it slithered away from us toward the neighbor's property. From what little I remember about it, it was probably a black racer, but at the time, I had no idea: it was a snake, and snakes bite people.

I have a strong feeling this is how my ophidiophobia developed.

Growing up in a rural area, we encountered all sorts of snakes on occasion - rattlers, moccasins, corns, rats (what we called "oaks"). For a long time, I couldn't even be near "safe" snakes like pythons or boas, even when handlers assured me they wouldn't harm me.

But thanks to conservationists like the late Steve Erwin, I harbored a secret fascination for the animals. When I lived in St. Louis, I frequently visited the reptile house at the zoo. But it took having to catch a score of garter snakes that had invaded my yard a few years ago that I began to overcome my terrors and learn to love these animals.

[EasternGirl]

We have a local zoo here that is very small but they actually have a nice little reptile house...of course, it is my favorite part of the zoo...well, that and the female Siberian tiger. The tiger died last year...she was very old...*sad*, but they have a new tiger, I will have to go see. Anyway, when we go to the zoo...my ex and my son are always scared of the reptile house...but they go in with me. I was upset last time we were there because I couldn't see the anaconda because she was at the vet. Hopefully, I can see her this year.

[Mommy2many]

I always loved to go looking for critters and flipping rocks and boards looking for things. I would occasionally find a snake in the early spring or chill and would warm them up. They became my "protectors",striking at anyone coming near me, as I was their heat source. I always loved snakes and had all but forgotten about that until 2 1/2 years ago when my Husband found "Stewie" in our yard while mowing the lawn. I decided to keep her and it's all been history since then. Garter snake love reborn! A beautiful thing and my children get to experience it as well. What could be better?

[aquamentus_11]

Zoos were always a favourite when I was younger. You couldn't get me away from any exhibit that had fish or reptiles in it. Most of the time it was only the carnivores I actually wanted to see.

I was also a huge zoo fan as a kid. My fav animals there were the hippos. I remember one winter my mom and I went and since it's too cold for hippos to be outside in Detroit in the winter, the hippos were inside. The hippo house was locked for some reason and my world was ruined. My mom actually forced the door open and we snuck in. Best mom ever.

The Detriot Zoo now has an AWESOME amphibian house. If anyone is ever in the area it's worth the visit. The reptile house is small, but very nicely kept with a huge reticulated python in a brand new viv.

[EasternGirl]

Detroit...wow...so you grew up street, huh? Lol... She does sound like a great mom. I would do the same for my son. I can't stand seeing him crushed over something. I was just saying to someone the other day...I guess the proper word for more than one hippopotamus would be hippopotami...but how many times have you heard that? I looked it up and apparently, hippopotami and hippopotamuses are both correct. The latin form of the plural really isn't used anymore since people now say "hippos". Just a little factoid for all of you....

[aquamentus_11]

nice. well I didn't grow up in the city itself, it was more of the suburbs meets the country when I was a kid. the zoo is in the suburbs just north of the city. there's a lot of just waste area in Detroit though: ruins of apartment buildings, playgrounds and factories that are being reclaimed by a twisted form of nature (sumac, grasses, briars, stunted trees, etc.). i wouldn't be surprised to find a lot of snakes in some of these places with their piles of concrete and overgrown/burned down houses. it'd be interesting to see what sort of animal life lives there. i know foxes, deer, raccoons, falcons for sure, but i'd be willing to bet snakes are there too.

[GarterGuy17]

Lol I grew up in the street and still live here , not really what they show in movies.

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...nothing is really like what they show in the movies is it?