On Thu, 10 Apr 2003 10:30:47 -0400, in article
, Susan H. Simko wrote:

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.

I also grew up with them but I'm phobic of them. I sometimes wonder if such
fears are at least partly under genetic control. Centi/millipedes also bother me
quite a bit.

...
OTOH, I was phobic about spiders.

And I *adore* spiders, and don't fear them at all (except to fear hurting them.

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...

It's nice to get over those things. I have a friend who grew up in SLC, Utah,
and had never seen ticks. For the longest time she would call me up to de-tick
her dog if she finds one on him. On the other hand, she had never seen a firefly
(which is a bizzarre thought to me) and only half-believed in them before she
came here. She was delighted to find that they were as wonderful as described.

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.

Actually, come to think of it, this was probably my only rattler, too (so far).

The guy was *huge*
and was coiled up on a deadfall near the Columbia River in Washington
State.

Ours also (Bill had seen it there before, that's how we knew to look for it
there) was huge, and coiled up happily snoozing on a large flat rock. She wasn't
inclined to move just because a couple of large mammals were gawking at her. She
didn't even deign to threaten us.

My practical joker uncle offered to catch it for us so we could
see it closer if we wanted...

Apparently when my husband took one of his herp classes they were supposed to
collect snakes to show the instructor they had them, and then return them. I'm
not sure if Bill collected a rattler, but he did say he collected a copperhead -
his instructer was a little less than 100% enthused about that

Now he doesn't routinely handle poisonous snakes, but if one was in someone's
garage I suppose he would to save it. He does routinely pick up non-venonous
snakes to say hi and photograph them. He is so gentle most of them don't seem at
all bothered by it. Sometimes he has a hard time putting them down if it's a
cool day

(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.)

Ah, a park ranger's nightmare ;-)

- Susan