Snakes

Snakes

This is one subject that I think causes more fear, than anything else that I can think of as I sit here at my computer. It goes without saying that I don’t dislike them but then again I don’t go out of my way to be with them.

I handled a snake once; I can’t remember what kind of snake it was. It was about two feet long I think. I say think because I was young at the time and was to say the least just a tad emotional about actually hold a snake in my hands. I can only assume that the snake was not a dangerous one, well not as dangerous as snakes go, I would think that in the normal course of things that all snakes, like most animals or reptiles have to be treated with respect and also with some mistrust.

I have been told that you can never fully trust a dog, no matter how well trained it is as there will come some event or another in which the dog reacts in a way that you just would not have expected it to.

Anyway back to snakes, I have seen plenty of the in some of the zoo's that I have been to over the years, and most of them did not look all that happy. I think that this may have something to do with how they are being kept in a cage, even if it is a glass one at that.

Some of the snakes that I have seen have been either very large, or very poisonous. the poisonous ones always looked the more colourful, I am sure that the reason for this being that if one bite from you will kill how ever is trying to eat you starts to get you noticed, and that is being very colourful is always going to be a great way of making sure that you are not on some one lunch menu. The only drawback of this idea is when you get something that quite likes the idea that the found comes already a bit spicy. I am sure that there has to be an animal of some type, out there that can tolerate some of the poisons that some of these snakes make.

I also suppose that if you are a very large snake e.g. some 10 foot long or so that because of your size you are not going to be something that any thing wants to get to know in a real hurry. So it would seem that sometimes size does matter.

Like I was saying earlier in this little article, having had a snake in my sweaty hands all I remember is that is was warm and that the skin was smooth, I expected it to be rough, because that’s the way it looks to the eye. I don’t know if all the snakes in the world have smooth skin, knowing the way that Mother Nature works there are bound to be snakes with skin that is rough.

I did like the way that it used its tongue all the time, tasting the air for where it thought its next meal might come all. One thing that I did not like was the way that it appeared to me not to blink; even to this day I am not sure if it did blink.

It so happens that where I work at this time we have a very large colony of adders. The last time that I ventured down to where they are in the summer the number of adders was possibly in the hundreds, I kid you not.

The sight of all those adders having a sun bathe was a sight to see, but you will not catch me going to close as you may or may not know adders are the UK's only toxic or poisonous snake, and I have found that if you leave them alone then they will leave you alone.

The only incident at work that we have had with the adders was a few years ago. That was when a snakes bit one of the guard dogs that got to close to its nest. Lucky the site has anti venom for just such an occurrence and the dog was saved and lived to tell the tale back in the dog compound.