Welcoming Newcomers

The newest visitor to our yard this year is a garter snake that has a particular spot where she consistently likes to sun herself.  I’m happy to have her as part of our garden community.

When I was growing up in Monroeville, PA, garter snakes were probably the most common snake we found.    They are relatively docile (if you pick one up, they tend to rely on musking to get your to drop them rather than biting), and take pretty readily to captivity, so if I found one I generally brought it home as a pet.

Unfortunately, like most snakes, they are good at escaping.   This resulted in a pet garter snake getting out of its cage and taking up residence in our living room.  At least, that is where he’d come out and sun himself while I was at school, much to my mother’s dismay.

Finally, she had enough. One day when the snake had crawled out onto the living room rug to sun itself once again, my mother drove to school and got me out of class to come home and catch it, which I did.  I don’t think I was allowed to try and keep it as a pet after that, so I let it go, let the house calm down a bit, and then went looking for another one.

Comments

[mindy]

I always wanted a snake as a pet, but never got one. Glad you did!