Most of my life, I've had that ingrained fear of snakes. But I've always been fascinated by them. Overcoming the fear has been a gradual process which I'm pretty much over, but still not completely. I'm still nervous handling my sub-adult wild caught bull. As a small child, I was always catching herps, primarily Texas Horned Lizards and box turtles, but the occasional snake also. The first snake that I had that I handled with any frequency was I think a Rough Earth Snake. A VERY small snake that never attempted to bite. Ringneck snakes were also a favorite. I did have a water snake that scared me to death, and a bull snake that I was also afraid of. Fast forward to about 10 years ago. I was at a family reunion at a lake in northern Oklahoma. My uncle was ferrying family members across the lake to a picnic area. I was already across the lake, wading in waist deep water when he pulled up with another load of family. I heard him shout my name. I turned just in time to catch a snake that he had thrown to/at me! I immediately dropped the snake into the water, looked at it and realized that it wasn't "dangerous", and picked it back up. It was a Rough Green Snake. I kept that snake for about a year. But it never calmed down, trying frantically to escape every time I handled it. I found a hatchling corn snake at the store where I bought crickets for the green snake, and had to have it. The corn snake was the first "BIG" snake that I handled without fear of being bitten, although it did bite me once due to a stupid feeding error. That bite did a lot to help me overcome my fear! Those two snakes got my kids hooked, too! I eventually released the green snake and sold the corn snake. A couple years later, my daughter wanted a snake, so I got her a ball python. "Dutchap" has lived either at the high school or with me ever since, as he's not allowed to live at my daughter's mom's house. My daughter graduated from high school last year, so now "Dutchap" lives with me full time. Since acquiring "Dutchap", my son's and my collection has expanded to include 57 snakes, including "Dutchap", one bull snake, one rat snake, 13 spotted pythons, and 41 additional ball pythons!

Sorry, didn't mean to write a novel!
Steve