The Snake Hunter

The coolest thing just happened! Mr. Bee and I went to the park in Belleville for a walk. It's a small penninsula that juts out into Belle View Lake and it has a nice walking path, a dam and a brook. One time when Mum and I were there, we saw a huge snake slither under a bridge that spans the river below the dam. I told Mr. Bee that if we saw a snake, to be forewarned....I would be screaming like a big old girl. So we walked down to the bridge and sure enough, there sunning itself was a huge snake. I pointed it out to Mr. Bee. This fell into the type of snake encounter where I saw it first so I didn't panic and run screaming. It was all coiled up in the grass. We were pointing and looking at it when a man came over and asked what it was. We told him just as it slithered into the water. The man said, "Don't worry, I'll get it!" and hopped in after it! Come to find out he is a local herpatologist from the university. He caught our snake, which was a three foot long pregnant female and when I spotted a smaller adult and a baby on the bank nearby and he caught those too He told us all about them. They were Northern Water Snakes and that Wisconsin waterways are full of them. They are non-poisonous which is a good thing since he got bitten. He said it didn't hurt. I don't believe him. He also got peed and pooped on. Despite their initial negative attitudes toward captivity they calmed down pretty quickly. They had beautiful patterns. Especially when they were wet. See the photo above.

What are the odds of that happening? What a cool experience! We finally pulled him out of the brook and he took us back to his minivan and gave us a card. He does birthday parties, "Snakes Alive", and had a van full of critters. He said that he should take me into the field with him because I had such a good eye for snake spotting. I took it as a 'come one' and was flattered, because I'm mighty desperate that way. Not desperate enough to actually go out and help him snake hunt though! Me and snakes have a healthy respect for each other. They don't bother me and I don't scream loud enough hurt their little reptile ears or stomp them to death in a panic. Just as long as I see them first, it's all good.

It's been a weekend of fun things. Knit Night on Friday was a blast!

The Sow's Ear had a a couple of ladies playing guitar and singing downstairs And a guy upstairs giving chair massages...
And best of all I got the GodAwful Green Stipe Socks done.

Eli's mum and I went to another LYS on Saturday and got some skeins of Cascade 220 to make my Mum a top-down seamless cardigan, my road trip to Maine project. We also walked down to the lake near the store and saw the wierdest water bird ever. We couldn't identify it and there wasn't a ornathologist handy. Maybe if we'd have seen it in Belleville there would have been!