Susan Hogarth wrote:

I am terrified of snakes. It's something I am working to overcome, because
they are so beautiful and useful.

I grew up with snakes (and not just the two legged kind) so they don't
bother me. One of the first snakes I remember having in the house was a
beautiful indigo racer. We lived in Florida on a military base and the
neighbor's kid kept all his snakes at our house because his mother
wouldn't let him.

OTOH, I was phobic about spiders. Standing and screaming was about as
much as I was capable of doing. Now, despite being truly terrified of
them jumping on me, I will scoop up spiders I find in the house and
release them outside. Slowly but surely... Of course, any wolf spider
that again stumbles into my house is a gonner.

However, my fear makes me an *excellent* snake spotter. Maybe that's why
Bill married me (although on one of our first dates I nearly blundered
into the rattlesnake (--NOT something else we were actually looking for.
I was distracted by love

*smile*

I've only ever seen one rattlesnake live and free. The guy was *huge*
and was coiled up on a deadfall near the Columbia River in Washington
State. My practical joker uncle offered to catch it for us so we could
see it closer if we wanted... (The same unlce who smeared ham fat all
over the bumper of his car so that when we got to the garbage dump to
see the bears, we could see on up close. We did.)

Susan
s s himko at duke dot edu