I think emotion in us as keepers is a wonderful thing. It keeps us striving to do right by our snakes because we truly love and respect them. Confusing our human emotions with their natural instincts or abilities though can lead to problems or misunderstandings.
Kev's got it right! Hardly a workable system if the snake had emotions and some sort of moral issues with eating a live rat. LOL
Mogley, sorry I did mean to answer your original question about patting the ground, etc. Snakes hear by vibrations which they pick up through their bellies and their lower jaws. They have no external ears so it's unknown what, if any sounds they hear in the way we humans do. Patting the ground causing a vibration is most likely to trigger your snake into an S aka strike position. The snake will either do this defensively if it perceives that vibration as an approaching predator or aggressively if it perceives that vibration as the approach of a possible prey animal. It might also choose to react by balling up tightly to protect it's head or in slithering off quickly to seek cover.
Either way it's not going to come when it's "called".
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