Definitely Not a Garter Snake

This evening while walking my dogs on Pond road I came across a hefty snake that had recently been struck by a car. The snake appeared to be mortally wounded at first look but then it coiled when the dogs got too close. Not recognizing what kind of snake it was, I stood there not wanting to see the animal suffer but also not wanting to get close enough to move it.

Growing up with three brothers, I had handled my share of snakes without much discomfort. As an adult it was in Florida and South Carolina that I learned to be wary of  snakes and once had such a close call at Cypress Swamp that occasionally it still causes me to pause even when seeing  a common Garter snake. We were walking around the swamp when I noticed something moving in the water. I took a step off the path only to be frozen with fear when Wayne shouted, "Don't move!" At that moment I think that I would have rather seen a gator than that snake poised to strike just inches from my foot. After what seemed to be an eternity, the snake simply went on its way.

A motorist slowed down to see what I was doing in the road. She got out of her car to take a look at the unusual snake, expressed regret at not being able to help with the situation but did take a few pictures. Shortly after I flagged down a friend who was looking like she needed an adventure just about then and so I invited her over by yelling, "There's an injured animal here!" Okay so I didn't exactly tell her that it was a snake but I was wanting her help and I thought that yelling snake might send her back up her driveway.  Now I'm not a total jerk so when she was fully committed to heading my way, I confessed that it was a snake.

You have to know someone pretty well to ask them to rescue an injured snake with nothing more than their bare hands and ingenuity and Cheryl seeing the poor thing went straight to work at finding a solution. As I mentioned before this was a hefty snake and not one you just reach out and grab by the tail or behind the head. "It's probably going to die, I just don't want it to suffer more than it has to." Cheryl and I bantered back and forth while sizing up the situation. The snake had a dull red background with a cloud shaped pattern. The clouds were bordered with a thin line of white and a black middle. "I don't know what kind it is, do you think it's a Milk Snake?" (It was not)

It was much more feisty than it should have been given the state it was in, so Cheryl picked up a couple of old corn stalk pieces out of the field and gently attempted to coax the snake towards the field. "It has a viper shaped head." I observed and it coiled to striking position. Cheryl gave it another gentle tap and WHACK it struck at her causing me to scream like a little kid in a haunted house who just had a monster jump out of a dark corner.  Cheryl on the other hand with cat like reflexes calmly spoke to the snake explaining to it that she only wanted it to move out of the road. Eventually the snake complied, stretched out and slithered off the road and into the field. Cheryl then went back to move the expelled innards of the snake off the road too. I don't know how many brothers Cheryl grew up with but I bet it was more than twelve. - Norma Manning