BIRMINGHAM NEWS (Alabama) 19 November 05 At Ruffner, memorial service set for Lady Gray Rat - Serpent, 15, passes away; her handlers and those she touched recall her charm (Katherine Bouma)
It's not every snake that merits a burial service, even at Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, where 24 animals live in captivity as teaching tools.
But then, it's not every snake that would obligingly flatten her head to look venomous and vibrate her tail to mimic a rattler, but never bite a single person, no matter how often she was grasped or touched.
So it seemed only fitting to acknowledge the passing of Lady Gray Rat Snake, as she was known, staff members at the center said.
"We sacrificed this wild creature's freedom in order to use her as an ambassador for her species," said Kathy Stiles Freeland, executive director Ruffner Mountain.
The staff at 11 a.m. Monday will hold a burial service for the 5-foot-long snake and bury her on Ruffner Mountain.
Freeland said she got the idea for the burial after staff members joked about the snake's death. When they were asked directly, they conceded they were sad about the death and began to share stories of her habit of curling her tail around one staff member's nose or willingly allowing unlimited contact from school-children. At that point, Freeland said, she decided to make the point that there's nothing wrong with missing a snake.
"It's OK to pause in your busy world and honor this snake that thousands of kids have touched or seen," Freeland said.
Most of the animals at Ruffner Mountain are injured and couldn't survive in the wild. Lady Gray Rat came to Ruffner from the McWane Center, where she was known to reside as far back as 1991.
Lee Coker, naturalist at Ruffner Mountain, said Lady Gray was one of his favorite animals on staff.
Not only did she perform fun tricks, such as mimicking fiercer snakes, but she was incredibly gentle and too slow to get away.
"You could hug her, and she would let you do whatever you wanted," Coker said. "There was never a concern she would bite you. She was very easygoing."
He said children visiting Ruffner Mountain invariably enjoyed her and even overcame their distaste for snakes after touching her or watching her climb a tree.
"The adults can go either way," he said. "The kids, once it was in your hands and they could touch it or see it go up a tree, 99 percent would love it."
He paused. "Maybe not 99. Maybe 90."
Lady Gray Rat Snake was known simply as "Gray Rat" until the summer of 2003 when her sex was revealed and she laid 12 eggs. Another gray rat snake, since freed, evidently was her mate.
Lady Gray Rat Snake, 15, died of old age. She is believed to be survived by her three young, who reside somewhere on Ruffner Mountain. The memorial service is open to the public.
Memorial service set for Lady Gray Rat