Snake Encounters of the Third Kind

When I was a girl, I loved to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Perkins' house on Lake Coeur d'Alene. One summer, my Aunt Candi's family visited at the same time our family did. During that time, my cousin Nat found a water snake in the lake. I was immediately enthralled. I had never seen one before, and I thought it was awesome to play with a snake that wasn't poisonous. That knowledge took the fear right out and put the fun right in. That incident began my obsession with the little beasts, otherwise known as OSD (Obsessive Snake Disorder). I just recently realized my obsession, and I think after reading the following 3 stories that you'll agree with my self-diagnosis!Two years ago, I found a dead snake on the dirt road by our house. I picked it up, and blood from its mouth dripped on my foot. I had a delightful time doing a photo shoot outside my house of this dead snake, and the blood on my foot. I thought it would be hilarious to coil the snake up on the front porch and let Josh have a surprisingly big scare (because unlike me, Josh is VERY afraid of snakes). I didn't tell him about the snake and I waited for him to have a reason to go outside and open the front door. Much to my dismay, that didn't happen, and the big scare never occurred.

Several weeks ago, the kids found a little water snake near the car in our driveway. I grabbed my camera and had them show me the snake. None of my boys would even touch it, but I picked it up and for 20 minutes had a fun little photo shoot with it: I took around 50 photos! I was trying to get a photo of it with its little tongue sticking out, but it always happened in a fraction of a second, and I never got the "perfect" shot!

A few days after that, I went to change pipe with the boys. After we were done, we took the long way home, which includes 2 different paved roads. Josh was on his motorcycle, Ammon was on his 4-wheeler, and I was bringing up the tail end on the big 4-wheeler with Kanyon. I passed by a water snake on a road, but couldn't pass up an opportunity. I stopped the 4-wheeler, grabbed the snake, and kept on driving while holding the snake in one hand and listening to Kanyon squeal every time the snake moved. I knew that Josh and Ammon would be stopping to feed the pigs on the way home, and I wanted to put the snake around Josh's motorcycle handlebars and watch him have a little scare. I drove slowly so that they would be out of site by the time I got to their ATV's. As I was approaching their abandoned ATV's in the driveway, I had to shift my 4-wheeler to a lower gear. In order to do so, I had to push in the clutch with my left hand--the same hand that was holding the snake. When I squeezed the clutch, the snake became angry, and it BIT ME!!! I screamed, and threw the snake. My wrist was bleeding and my heart was pumping out of my chest; I couldn't believe what had just happened! I had no idea water snakes even bit! Of course, Josh reappeared right after. I retold the tale to him, and as you can guess, he was having himself a good laugh! My little plan had backfired on me--I was the one who was scared, and he was the one that was laughing! My wrist bled for a half hour, and I had a fang marks, and a "W"-shaped mouth bite scab for a few days.

But I don't even think even that will be enough to stop me in my obsession!