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Snakes can't really fly, or can they?

It all started with a skid overhead and a plop two feet behind me. I was in Texas on May 1st 2004 to attend my cousins outdoor wedding and reception in a Japanese tea garden. Not knowing my way around, I had followed other family members who were going early to help set up. The weather had been rainy and cold with thunderstorms but was just starting to clear. I found a lovely outdoor setting with Koi ponds and a large deck area with several pavilions with steep "A" frame type roofs where the reception was to be held.

Not wanting to just stand around I offered to help with the decorations. In keeping with the Japanese tea garden theme we were hanging up light strings with paper lantern covers. I was hanging up the lights near the corner of one of the pavilions when I heard a skid sound from above followed by a plop two feet behind me. I turned around to see what looked like a rubber snake on it's back. My first reaction was "who's the wise guy that tossed the rubber snake"! I had been telling stories of my snakes at home and I thought one of my uncles "known for their sense of humor" was playing a prank. As I looked at the "rubber" snake I realized it was not moving like a rubber snake going back to it's molded shape but more like a real snake moving really slow since it was really cold.

I quickly switched mental gears from prank snake to real snake, I looked first at the tail and saw no rattles. Then looked at the head and verified it was not that of a viper, slender not wide. Remember, the snake was mostly upside down. I then gently picked up the snake and checked it out. I quickly identified it as a adult corn snake. Not like the ones I'm used to seeing with all the various color morphs available but a normal colored corn snake. The poor thing was quite cold and not moving much but appeared none the worse for it's apparent slide down the roof and fall to the deck. There were large trees overhead and I don't know if it fell out of a tree onto the roof or slipped from the roof itself.

Realizing a wedding is not the place for a wild snake I started off to the gardens to release it back into the wild. As I was walking away I thought "we should get some pictures" I went back and my daughter snapped a Polaroid and my wife used our 35 mm. I turned to go back to the gardens and a park person offered to take it from me. He probably didn't know I was familiar with snakes and had no intention of harming it, only taking it to be released away from the wedding reception.

Well, the story spread, soon it was quite the wedding story about the snake that fell from the sky right next to the one person who was not afraid of it. Several people wanted to hear the story and see the picture, Bride and Groom included. I was quite the hero, being the snake wrangler that nonchalantly just reached over and captured the wild animal. As usual in any group (except herp groups) there were several that were relieved it didn't drop near them. I even heard that the minister had said something about it being a good thing it didn't fall near him or there would not have been a wedding. I was just happy to be there to take care of the situation and ensure the snake was not harmed.

The moral of this story is that snakes can't really fly. They can however drop in when you least expect it.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I have a similar funny story. A guy I know at work told me this one.

When he was in high school, a buddy talked him into catching a bunch of snakes to put in someone's locker at school. They went down to the local bayou with a cloth sack, and messed around for a while until they had a good bag full of snakes.

That night, they went to put them in someone's locker at school. They went to the buddy's school, and my friend didn't know anyone else there or know whose locker was which. For some reason, the buddy decided that he should be lookout while my friend went inside to put the bag of snakes in someone's locker. My friend wasn't all that enthused about breaking into the school, so he just walked down the hall, opened one of the first lockers that he passed, dropped the bag in the bottom, and left.

The buddy didn't know whose locker had the snakes, but he kept an eye on things the next day. As it turns out, there was one kid at that high school who was already a herper. He came to school, opened his locker, and found a bag in the bottom. When he opened the bag to find all these snakes, he didn't even jump. He stood there looking into the bag and making a mental list of what he had. His only confusion was whether someone had given them to him as a gift or whether he was just supposed to identify them and give them back. They never told him how the snakes got in his locker.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.