On Wed, 09 Apr 2003 19:27:03 GMT, in article
, Lance R. wrote:

"Susan H. Simko" wrote in message
...
Most of the snakes you encounter in this are are harmless. Leave them
alone and they'll leave you alone. In addition, they will make dinner
of any local rodent you may have plaguing your garden.

Or the local pets.

It's not very responsible to let your pet rodents run free. They should always
be supervised for outdoor play.

My dogs seem to ignore snakes, although I have seen other dogs who react
strongly to them. The dogs and I nearly stepped on a young copperhead once
before I realised it and hopped on one foot (the one that was *not* just about
to step on the snake) to the side. Of course Bill was there with the camera in a
flash

This was at Schenck Forest, where we have seen several copperheads and many
watersnakes. The copperheads are *gorgeous*, although of course it doesn't pay
to get too close to them. But they don't seem inclined to attack. I used to walk
at Schenck with the dogs every evening, and we often saw snakes and many people
had their dogs off-lead, but I don't recall any bites.

I may try to find the pictures Bill took and post them. I even made up a flyer
with pics of copperheads and water snakes so people could have an easier time
identifying them - myself included, as without Bill I am hopeless to ID any
snake but the copperhead reliably. Well, I can also pretty reliably ID worm
snakes

- Susan