Last night as I was working at the emergency pet clinic in Flower Mound, a man called and said that he had seen a rather large snake in the shopping mall parking lot and was wondering if perhaps it belonged to us, and went missing. I assured him that NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO it did not, but I was interested in finding out more about it.
He said it was about 6 feet long and as big around as a coke bottle. Wow! In our busy little strip center? That’s just crazy. He had actually taken a picture of it with his phone, and e-mailed it to us. It was indeed – a very LARGE snake.
None of us knew if this would be a dangerous guy or not so we ended up calling the police to check it out. They looked around the tree we thought it was in, but to no avail. Finally the one that was pretty knowledgeable about snakes looked at the photo and determined that it was just a rat snake. Not of any danger to anyone, so that was good news. Still, I wouldn’t want to run across him in a dark alley.
The picture is hard to see, but look toward the bottom of the tree to see a good portion of the snake lying on the ground. Gives you a fair idea of his actual length.
I guess I’m always a little surprised when I see things that belong in the “wild” right in our back yard. But I shouldn’t be. We are constantly encroaching on their natural habitat more every year. More building, and more neighborhoods where there once was just woodlands. A couple of years ago I happened to glance out of my back door just in time to see a turkey – a full grown turkey, strolling along the top of our privacy fence. He went down a couple of houses and then just jumped down into the yard. It was almost as shocking as suddenly seeing a cow in my backyard! Then a few weeks ago I saw two very large (scary large) coyotes right in the middle of a residential neighborhood (less than a mile from my house). I was stunned. It made me glad that I have a 6’ privacy fence to protect my little guys. But after all, they’re just trying to survive.
So when we see these “intruders” lets cut them a break, and try to remember that they were here first, and that WE are actually intruding on them.
Tags: emergency clinic, Flower Mound, snake
Wowzah! I’m glad you said to look at the bottom of the tree because you can’t really appreciate the length otherwise. Man! That would freak me out.
I remember when they were developing the land behind our house about 10 years ago, I was walking one of the dogs and came face to face with a very frail looking coyote. First, I felt paralyzing fear, then pity. We ARE taking away their homes and it makes me very sad. I’m such a sap for animals!
I saved a rat snake years ago that dropped off a hay wagon going through LA. I named her SIS and she was a hoot. I kept her in a big glass aquarium for a month or so before taking her to the country and releasing her. I fed her feeder mice…I was more afraid of the mice than I was of Sis. She was never aggressive towards me and seemed almost thankful that someone saved her from the 8 lane freeway. Yes, they can get large…Sis was about 4 feet long. This morning I had a mama, papa and 2 baby deer in the woods in back of our place… yesterday we had several turkeys that wondered through. It is so very important that we repect all forms of wildlife and learn to live in harmony with them.
Wow! That’s really cool. It seems like no matter WHERE you live, you always get the best wildlife!!! Great to hear from you!!!