Is it weird I feel good for saving a wild snake the other day?

I knew if anyone would understand, it would be here.

So, the other day about 11:00 am my oldest son and I are driving to the store. The sun is bright and it's been really warm the last few days. Driving down the hill leaving my subdivision, I spot a three foot plus black rat snake making it's slow way across the warm blacktop.

Now, this is a steep hill, and has lots of blind curves. I knew that poor baby did not stand a chance of making it across in one piece as slow as it was going. I'm sure the pavement felt good.

So what do I do ? I pull into the first driveway I come to, swing a u-turn and head back up the hill. Another car roars down going the direction I was, and the bewildered snake stops and kind of looks after the retreating car like, " What was THAT?"

So I stop the van about 3 feet away, throw it in park, hit my flashers and jump out, praying no one will come flying around the blind corner and hit me. I snatch up a snow brush, the only semi-long object I had in the van. I then march out into the middle of the road, and the little snakey turns and looks at me. I gently brush his side with the snowbrush, trying to speed up his crossing.

As you can imagine, snakey did not appreciate this, and rears up a little and "s" curves at me. I can hear another car coming, and I'm in no mood to get squished trying to save this black snake, so I urge a little harder. Much to my delight, snakey decides it's had enough, and turns around to rapidly slither across the road and down the embankment. I watch until it's safely out of sight, then quickly get back in my van and throw it in gear just as another car comes barreling around the corner, squealing brakes to keep from hitting me.

I drive off with a big grin, proud of my good deed. My son however, pronounces me nuts, and then proceeds to tell his father about my crazy "snake savior" act.

Despite the teasing from hubby and son, I still feel good that pretty little snake lived to see another day.

Gale

Lol. Both my husband and I have been known to stop the car to "help" all manner of snakes and turtles along. People will intentionally swerve to hit snakes a lot of the time. :(

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Not at all. I've helped road creatures too. Doesn't matter what kind of creature it is. Roadkill stinks anyway. Better to be alive and eating rodents anywhere near my house. :)

You never know when good deeds will be returned. ;)

No way! Its a great feeling! Ive also helped many a creature cross the road, no matter how much of a hurry im in to get somewhere. :gj:

I think it would be weird if you didn't feel good for helping any creature in need, regardless of species.

Nice work! :D :gj:

Many a summer night of mine has been spent road cruising and moving rattlesnakes, kingsnakes, and other such animals off the road :)

good for you!

And I mean it...more people (and creatures) than not, would see this as an opportunity to harm or devour this defenceless, harmless animal. You can feel good knowing that you gave another day of life to one of the oldest and most amazing creatures on the earth:D We are so proud of you!!!

Taking snakes of the road is only one thing i do. i also take in injured snakes or snakes that have RI after prescribed burnings and many others. i love the poor guys even if the wild ones hate me. One time there was a fox snake in an area that would be burned soon and although illegal i kept it for a week until they burned it. It feels good knowing you would risk going to prison over a small thing like that.:snake:

Even the wild ones need a friend every once in a while. We can step into their lives and change their whole course of direction and then step back out. That's very cool to me.

I think what you did was awesome!! :gj::gj::gj:

Be proud! I know I'm proud of you.

It's not weird at all!! That's awesome that you saved him, even if he didn't really understand haha :gj:

I always stop and help turtles crossing the road, and I actually had a similar experience to yours last year. I was riding with my mom (she was driving) and all of a sudden I saw this medium sized garter slithering leisurely across the road. Luckily this area is relatively flat and straight, but I still wanted to make sure he got across okay. We pulled over and I jumped out and started herding him across. He also s'ed up at me at first, but then turned around and bolted. Now, he just happened to be heading toward someone's driveway, and the owner of the driveway just happened to be backing out in his giant truck. Fortunately, the snake didn't actually go into the driveway, just onto the lawn next to it, but the guy still saw what I was doing and gave me the weirdest look, like I must be completely out of my mind. I just smiled at him and ran back to our car :rolleye2:

I felt pretty good knowing I hopefully helped the little guy, so nope, it's not weird at all :D The world needs more people like you that care enough to stop and help!!

See, I knew the people here would understand.

For starters, I hate to see anything get hit by a car. So that was one reason I stopped. Second, it was a completely harmless black rat snake, and with the explosion in the wild mouse population around here, we need all the natural mouse control we can get.
Thirdly, since becoming a snake owner, I've learned to see even more beauty in these creatures than I did before, and this snake truly was beautiful.

I couldn't bear the thought of having to drive back up that road later and see that pretty creature dead and know I could have prevented it. So despite my husband and son thinking I'm crazy, I'd do it again if I could. Who knows, maybe I'll see him later this summer sometime ?

Truthfully, I wasn't worried about him biting me, he couldn't possibly do that much damage to me, but I knew he was going to be scared and confused and didn't want to make things any worse than I had to. It was worth the risk of getting hit by a car just to see him up close and watch how graceful he was.

Gale