Northern Black Racer Gets Stuck

This Northern Black Racer was having a bad day. He got stuck in this fishing mesh as he was trying to evade somebody’s yard. Lucky for him I got the call and cut this guy loose. It took me over a half hour to cut this guy out of the mesh as his entire body was stuck. After I removed him from the mesh, I took him to a place he could be released and not have to worry about encountering other nets or people. Here was my problem, black racers are extremely aggressive so cutting this guy loose, I had to worry about his bite and even though it’s a harmless snake. its bite was something I didn’t want to have to experience. Black racers are known for biting more than once. But here’s just one example of what can happen when you mix snakes and people.

We Say Good Bye to Goldie

Goldie was a beautiful Timber Rattlesnake. I had her for quite a few years. I knew she was getting sick when she regurgitated her last meal, this is usually a bad sign. After my program today I came home and found her dead. This snake was a special snake to us, she was actually a very timid and friendly rattlesnake. She was 5 1/2 foot and was absolutely beautiful. She got the name Goldie because of  the color of her eyes. I don’t know how old she actually was because I  bought her when she was full grown. Goldie was one of my first Rattlesnakes that appeared in the newspaper when they did a story on me.  These are the things you run into when you collect reptiles, one minute they’re fine and the next minute they’re dead, but it doesn’t make it any easier when  they die. The saying goes, “The only good snake is a dead snake.” I can tell you one thing about Goldie, she will be one rattlesnake that I will miss greatly. like all my animals that pass, they always get a burial in the backyard. This is out of respect, because without these snakes there would  not be a JB’s Rattles.

Goldie

9/17/12

Ribbon Snake Steals Car

This Ribbon Snake broke into my mechanics car and as they were driving, it came out of the steering wheel. This guy scared his wife half to death. He called me and asked me to come down to the shop to find the snake. We tore out the dash board, some of the carpeting and until the snake was found, no one was going to drive the vehicle. His wife gave him orders saying “if the snake can’t be found, sell the car.” After running the heater and removing some of the items out of the car, the snake was located in a bag she had in the back of the vehicle. This is just a simple Ribbon snake, they are completely harmless. They eat frogs, fish and insects. As you can see in the picture above, I fed him a frog. Like all the other snakes that we remove, he was fed and released back into the wild.