Reptiles page 4

Animal Stories: I've never found snakes to be very frightening, since they usually are on the ground and easy to avoid. When I was little, I was rather proud of how good I was at catching small snakes that I found swimming through the water in the rocky shallows of creeks and rivers in Illinois. With our dogs, however, it was a different story. They were schnauzers, well-known for their rodent-catching abilities, but totally terrified by snakes. We were once playing with a large snake that was rearing up like a cobra and striking, but was getting tired and would then fall back instead of strike. When we were through with the game and looked around to see where the dogs were, we could just make them out as they were sitting at quite some distance away, patiently waiting for us. This fear of snakes even went a step further to include any creature that was long and slender. After a rain, it was hilarious to watch the dogs try to walk on a sidewalk without stepping on any worms. They would literally dance around, attempting to jump away from the little creatures covering the concrete.

Garter Snake (zoo) Garter Snake (Pedernales Falls State Park, Texas) Gaboon Viper (zoo) Gaboon Viper (zoo) Horned Adder (zoo) Water Moccasin (Mustang Island State Park, Texas) Water Moccasin (zoo) Rattlesnake (zoo) Rattlesnake (zoo) Eyelash Viper (zoo) Glass Lizard (Laura S. Walker State Park, Georgia)