Found a snake.... :(

[gemini9961]

Too bad he's dead. I was out with the dogs and I walked to the side of my walk and looked over and jumped back a little as he was curled up next to my door (one we don't ever use). I got closer to see if he was alive, but he's got some trauma to his body and head. Poor guy is dead. Not sure how long he's been there as I don't usually go over there. Not sure how he died either. I don't believe the dogs did it because it probably would have scared them. I believe he is a yellow rat snake. I had to look him up online as I have not seen one of these around here before.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/fl-guide/eoquad02a.jpg

I won't take a pic of him as he's hurt a little and I don't want anyone to get upset. :( We'll have to bury him later I suppose. He sure did scare me though. :eek:

EDIT--I found that pic on the website where I was researching him. I am pretty sure that's what he is.

[flamepony12]

Too bad he was dead, but I can understand why you were scared. Are they poisonous?

This reminds me of what happened to me the other day...

We went up to pony club, and as usual, I knocked on my shed to hear if there were any rattles coming from inside. (My shed is metal, so we're always afraid of snakes getting in) I didn't hear anything, so I opened the door and stood to the side. As I look in, I see this really dark, coiled thing flicking its tounge at me from next to my boot. As you might expect, I screamed and ran the other direction. Luckily, a trainer was there, and scared it away. *phew!* I'm still scared to go into my shed first. :p

[Suki Wingy]

Aw, my dad loves rat snakes, too bad it was dead. Could a car have maybe hit it? My dad goes around moving the dead snakes off the road so other animals can eat them without getting run over themselves.

[K9soul]

Poor snake :(. I understand it being startling to see it there. How sad that he didn't make it. Perhaps he was hit on the road and crawled away injured but didn't make it.

Devon, rat snakes are nonvenomous and are generally quite docile. We had a lot of black rat snakes in MO and they could get up to 6 feet long. I saw one going up a tree at a park once and he let me run my fingers along his back though he slithered up a bit faster when he felt my touch :p.

[Suki Wingy]

cool! Black rat snakes are my dad's favorite, but he never could seem to see any in the wild. You should have seen him the first time he saw one!

[gemini9961]

Well it turns out he was not dead. I thought he was dead for sure because of his injuries and I had tossed a little stick at him to see if he would move and it hit him and he didn't move so I left him until my fiance got home. Well when he got home, we went out there and I didn't see him, I was like he's gone. My fiance was like no he's right there, he was there but he had moved, only a little bit. We had the shovel so we could scoop him up to move him and when we tapped him with the shovel he moved!!!!! He hissed a little bit but his jaw was messed up and he had lots of dirt in his mouth. I think maybe a hawk got him because we have a few around here. I don't believe it was a car since his skin and was basically torn off. Poor guy. I really think it was a hawk. Well we scooped him up anyway and put him on the other side of the fence where there are more trees and grass for him to crawl under. I just went and checked on him and he's gone so I don't know what will become of him. We had to move him from our yard because of the dogs. They are not venomous but I didn't want the dogs to mess with him. As it was Maggie was sniffing all around where he was before. Good luck little snake. :)

[K9soul]

He must have been "playing possum" then the first time. I think it's really wonderful that you and your fiance did what you could to help him when a lot of people would have killed him. It always warms my heart to hear of people helping other creatures even if they are a bit frightened of them. Kudos to you! Good luck little snake!

[gemini9961]

Originally posted by K9soul
He must have been "playing possum" then the first time. I think it's really wonderful that you and your fiance did what you could to help him when a lot of people would have killed him. It always warms my heart to hear of people helping other creatures even if they are a bit frightened of them. Kudos to you! Good luck little snake!

Well he was outside in his territory. He's harmless so we just re-located him outside the fence for safety. We found a Pygmy Rattler here when we first moved in. We didn't know at the time that's what is was for sure. We thought it was and we went ahead and scooped him up and moved him out of the yard. I wouldn't want to kill a rattler either but if he kept coming in the yard I'd be scared as I have a small dog, she's only about 8 pounds and he could do some damage to her. However, he has not been seen in the yard again, I guess he got the message.