A friend of mine called me this evening and asked me if I wanted a pet rattlesnake. Of course, I said no, and then he told me that one fell off the top of his screen door onto his head and then rattled and struck at him when he tried to pick it up with a stick. I asked if he had actually seen a rattle on its tail, and then he admitted that he hadn't, he had simply heard the rattle. I told him other snakes were known to "rattle" their tails, and said I'd be right over. I got my little snake box (tupperware with holes and a locking lid) and went around the block. There, wedged in a crevice between the wall and screen door was a little cutie of a gray rat snake. Sure enough, this little guy put on a fantastically fierce show with much rattling of tail. I'd never seen a snake do that before, and I was very impressed! He really did a great rattlesnake impression! WOW! I had no idea he could be so convincing! My friend insisted that he did not want to let it stay in his yard, and I would have brought it to our own yard, but we have a gang of kids living next door who are known to stomp lizards on a whim, so we were afraid they'd find him. We found a nice wooded area with a pond nearby to set him free in, and I got these pictures:

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~Juliane~

Wow! What's the size of it? Looks big...

If a snake fell onto my head, I would need a fresh change of underwear =)

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Wish list: Blue Tongue Skinks and Uruplatus =)

how beautiful.

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yes i am a she ^_^

~My Babies~

1 Rosy Boa (male) Chaos
1 Snow Corn (male) Blizzard
1 Anertherystic Corn (male) Bullet
1 Senegal Parrot (male) Shadow
2 dogs (male) Spot and Bear

Aww man...ya should've kept him! Or at least sent him to me! lol
What a cutie!

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Some think they can. Some wish they could. Some do.

Great pics Juliane, what a beautiful find, he sure is gorgeous

Rat snakes can get up to 8' in length

Oops...I meant to say he's only about 2 feet long. It's funny how snakes can look so huge without a size reference in the picture

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~Juliane~

At least you managed to save the poor guy!
The snake,... not your friend!

You did good Juliane!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I'm just grateful my friend didn't go get a shovel or a broom to kill the poor thing instead of calling me.

I hope the snake didn't hurt himself falling so far from the top of the door. He was very active when he was trying to keep me from catching him and I thought he seemed just fine, but when we let him go, he didn't slither away. He just stayed where I put him on the leaves. He had been in the container for a couple of hours by the time we were able to take him out and release him; maybe he was stressed from being in a strange dark container. There were plenty of airholes all around, so I know he wasn't oxygen deprived. And when I was catching him, I was VERY careful not to hurt him. I wanted to wait after we let him go to see if he slithered off ok, but there were too many mosquitos, so we had to run after only a couple of minutes. I wonder if he was just tuckered out from all the excitement? Maybe confused? Of course, my friend may have inadvertantly injured him when the little guy fell on him...I'm hoping that my friend actually broke the snake's fall, and that the snake was not injured, just overwhelmed by his scary experience and being left in a new place. Poor little thing.

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~Juliane~

He was a beaut .....I've got one does the same thing, an okeetee

Juliane I have caught snakes in the wild and then released them after looking at them. Many times they just lay there for a bit. I think that their instinct is to freeze hoping you don't see them even though YOU just put them there!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!