So the wife and I were walking our dog last night. It was about 10pm and we decided to head out to "the pond" and back. "The pond" is about half a mile from the house and is one of our standard walks with the dog. There are multiple conservation areas throughout our neighborhood that border the road that this pond is on. Being Florida we are constantly running into wildlife during our walks. Frogs, Lizards, and armadillos are common with the armadillos causing the biggest stir. They've scared the wife countless times when they've taken off through the underbrush on the side of the road. There are also 'gators in these conservation areas though we've never seen them, only heard them. When it gets as dry as it is now you have to watch for them though as they start moving around looking for ponds that still have water. We also have some deer that hang out in the neigborhood.
So, that's all fine and dandy. No big deal. But I forgot another common critter. Snakes. Mostly of the garter or black racer variety. In fact, my dog was bit...oh, probably a year ago by a black racer in my backyard. Freaked me out at the time, but I was glad I was there to see that it was nothing poisonous. At the time I was also kind of glad it had happened because I hoped it would help him to understand that snakes were something to stay away from. Well, last night either that lesson stayed with him or he simply didn't see the snake that was right at the edge of the sidewalk because he walked right on past it. Thank God
I DID see it. Don't know what made me look down but I had my left foot in the air mid stride and happened to glance down right when one of these little fuckers:
Right before he decided to show me this:
For those who don't know their snakes, this is a Cottonmouth, also known as a Water Moccasin.
Thankfully, this was a little-ish guy and he wasn't in the mood to be aggressive and didn't actually strike. But I'll tell you he scared the crap out of me and I was freaked out the rest of the way home. Of course that didn't stop me from getting close enough to get a really good look at him once he settled back down and started moving through the grass again. He was much lighter than the picture up top and had some amazing markings on him that really aren't all that visible on the two pics above, but you can get the general idea.
Needless to say we won't be walking the conservation areas (full of water, where these guys live) at night (the time of day when they are active) any more!
