Black Snakes/ Adults and Babies

Last summer I spotted this adult black snake crawling across the yard. It looks as though it just finished a good meal. Last summer I didn't know anything about this snake except that it was black and non-poisonous. It left me alone and I would leave it alone.
Snakes are really such misunderstood creatures.......

Sometimes I feel we have a lot in common. ;)

They don't bother anyone, as a matter of fact snakes are just as scared of us as we are of them. To them we are the predators, well I suppose we ARE the predators, as most people kill them rather eagerly. A couple of months ago I was weeding around some plants and noticed a slight movement.... this one really scared me because it caught me off guard. I just let it stay there and I went on my way..... Can you see it? (picture below) you can click on the pictures for larger viewing.
Then today, after gardening all day around this bush, something caught my eye. I thought it was a piece of dead knotty branch and when I got closer to remove it, I realized it was a snake! Had it been there all day?!? I ran to get my camera so I could identify it. Then I thought it would be better to catch it in a glass jar and bring it to the computer with me for better ID.
I searched for what seemed an hour or more. There just isn't a lot of photos or information on baby snakes. I surfed from site to site, Utube videos, blogs, etc. then I stumbled upon two really great blog sites and that's how I knew beyond a doubt that this is a baby black rat snake! I then remembered the adult black snakes I had seen in the yard.
At first it was a toss up because it looked like it could be an Eastern milk snake...or a King snake...so I was really glad to get a positive ID.

I would like to thank the authors and photographers of the sites, they were so helpful! Their pics were wonderful and clear.

Check them out sometime!

www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_rat_snake.htm

chiotsrun.com/2009/10/09/baby_rat_snake

I learned a lot about these black snakes today....I have rodents here that are becoming a pest for me and these snakes are here because they are hungry and the food is plentiful. They eat moles, voles, frogs, lizards (I wasn't to happy about that one) and other snakes, even the poison ones. So to me they are keepers and are welcome in my yard!

They are like any predator (in the natural world) they only kill what they can eat, no waste and no gluttons.
The baby snakes have marks on their underside, except for the upper inch or so, it's plain white.

This one is a little over a foot and as round as a pencil. It looks bigger in the pics but it is very tiny!
After identifying it I took it back to the bush where I found it and released it. I'll be looking out for it when I go out there from now on! ;)
Black snakes can lay up to 30 small eggs, in a woody area, but very few make it. I have lots of birds here and a few chickens so I'm sure they have a hard time living here.








I couldn't help myself from taking so many pictures of this tiny helpless creature. It stayed up in the bush for about an hour then it slithered down and on across my small compost pile.......

where it disappeared between the tarp. I'll make extra sure I'm careful out here from now on. You can click on the pics to make them larger.

I also learned something else about them, the pupils of their eyes are round not slatted meaning again non poisonous.

Please before you grab a hoe or shovel to kill something....look it up, identify it......after all, it has just as much of a right to live as you do!! Even if it is "just a snake"! Snakes are very beneficial to our environment.

I think we have thrown our planet life out of "kilter" by being so uninformed and afraid of things. We kill too many helpful things and suffer because of it. THEN pesticides and poisons have to come into the picture....GEEZE!!! Just let nature take care of itself, the rewards will be greater than our harmful efforts!

TTFN!

Until next time!

Julie

Growing Pains

Well, my little Chihuahua, Molly(she weighs less than 2#) has decided that because I've never let her be a mommy that she will adopt, ;) which is just fine with me....she has taken over the role of protector and caregiver of love and affection to our little *Honeybee*. My only role now is to feed her, which she thinks should be every time she sees me.
Is this not the cutest face you've ever seen?????
Oh to have her life! ;)
I was taken by surprise today when I went to the chicken pen to let the hens out.....Something unusual caught my eye in one of the nesting boxes.....

My husband and I had made an agreement that we would do everything we could to try and win the mother cats trust.....if for just enough to be able to lure her into something to be able to get her to a vet and have her spaded. We've been feeding her when we see her in the afternoons going across our back yard. I've noticed over the last week that she's been watching me very carefully from a distance......
I suppose it has worked! She moved in!
And she's not alone! Dang!
After much soft talking and very slow moving I was able to get close enough to her to take more pictures and saw how thin and bony she was. The kittens were starving as well. I came in and fixed them some food and water.....
And they all dove in! Poor things!

A while later when mom got down I went in and got the black and white one, brought him in and bathed and blow dried him, they are covered in fleas. He went to sleep and when he woke he acted like he's always been here! He won't take to the bottle like *Honeybee* does but thats to be expected. He's way tinier than she is too.

I'll get the last two tomorrow and bring them in, but first see if I can catch mom. I can't wait too long because when I went to reach in to get the spotted kitten they hissed and growled at me. Mom did too when I brought the food out to them earlier.

I'm hoping this is *Honeybee's* mom, there is another cat that looks like her around here too. I do wish people would be responsible with their pets and have them fixed before letting them roam free and multiply. It's such a burden on those of us that care!

I'll keep you posted on our Hemingway kitties;)

TTFN!

Julie

My Little Honey Bee

Well, since the last post, I have learned quite a lot about kittens.

Number one just because they are tagged with a famous man's name, doesn't really mean they are rare or elite or famous themselves ;)

A friend of mine (thank you Suzie) told me this little kitty was a Hemingway cat. I was SO impressed! How sweet! I thought.....a very unique kitten indeed! ;) She went on to tell me the story that Ernest Hemingway had lot of feral cats that he took care of and they inner bred, causing the "extra" thumbs and toes on their paws. Well, this explains things, duh....we have feral cats around here, geeze, I'm so outta touch!

She went on to tell me that this little kitty was also a female because she is a Calico. Calico cats are almost always female, rarely will one be a male. Well, I really didn't want to believe her because I had had a look down yonder and things looked to be male gender......;) apparently I didn't look close enough ;) again, I have to admit....I just don't/didn't know.

So, my famous rare male kitten, is "not so". "She" is just an average little girl born out of insest! But, I still love her, it isn't her fault, or her mother's...it's the person that brought them here that didn't care enough to have them fixed.

This little one will be fixed as soon as she is old enough!

All of her time is spent eating and sleeping.......oh, to be a kitten!

Waking up.......
just to go back to sleep.....
Her eyes finally opened a day ago.....isn't she the cutest!
Love this one!
Dozing.......

Griffen can't wait for her to be able to play! He's still not quite sure what exactly she is!

TTFN!

Julie

Abandoned

What is this thing?!

Millie thinks she might want it for her own.....or either the "mother instinct" in her wants to soothe it and hush it's crying.

Griffen doesn't know what to think about it and wants it to play with him.

Sasha and Mollie want it to go away........
I had a very busy day with bees today and noticed when I came home to crab a few things to work with, that a kitten was crying under (or so I thought) our shed. I was in a very big hurry and couldn't stop to look. We have a few feral cats in our neighborhood and even though we have never had a cat here, one seems to always be around. One had kittens in our garage last year (she found a way in through a crack in the window), she moved them once we found them.

Anyway, when my husband got home we were out working hives and he said, "it sounds like you have baby chicks".....I said no...then he said "baby squirrels?".....I said no.....then it hit him..."oh, no you've got to be kidding me!!! Kittens???" I said "yep!" He went over to the shed (I was in a hive) and he walked back over and I could hear it crying. He said it was between the shed and garage....it was soaking wet and cold.
Poor thing, I finished up in the hive and brought him inside, dried him off and let Millie "mother" him while I fixed him something for his tummy.
He was sooo hungry! He latched onto that bottle and wouldn't let go!

Living out and loving nature I always have an animal baby bottle around. I've raised squirrels (heavens knows why) and there's always something that comes along sooner or later that needs a bottle.
He doesn't even have his eyes opened yet.
Sound asleep......I have a heating pad under the rags and he's out ;)

He needs a name.....and a home.....any suggestions?

TTFN!

Julie

Sasha

This is Sasha......sitting in her chair on our front porch, just before daybreak.

She's camera shy and I've disturbed her morning ritual.....she's not too happy with me right now.

She sits in her chair on nice mornings for hours on end looking out into the yard and down the road. I often wonder what she's thinking about.......her younger days most probably, when she roamed these roads around here.....back in her day, she knew everyone that lived around here and they knew and loved her. She loves people and children.....she's such a sweet girl.

About five years ago an influx of new people moved in and they were "afraid" of her, so we put up a fence to keep her in. Her old friends got upset because she didn't visit them any more.

Sasha has a hip disorder and can't get around very good, she walks with a bad limp and falls alot. When she does get out for a stroll she can barely move the next day, meds don't work as good as they once did. The vet is worried about a knot on one of her ribs, so I try to keep her as comfortable as I can.

In the picture above I took her with me to get a load of mulch/dirt in the truck. She loves to ride but she's used to my low little car and when I opened the truck door for her to get in she turned and looked at me as if to say, "you're joking, right!" LOL I really did have to slide the seat all the way back and help her in. Isn't that a sweet face? LOL
More sweetness.....
Out like a light! ;)
Oh...soooo....humiliating!
She loves her chewies!

Sasha was given to my son on his sixteenth birthday by a girlfriend at the time. I said NO! Absolutely not! She was four weeks old! He asked me to pllleeeaaassseee try her for just one night.....and here we are! ;)

No one liked her, none of our older dogs at the time. I felt so bad for her and before I knew it she had my heart. She's only been away from home one night since she came here and that was for spaying. She's never had pups and she's always been my baby.

I've often talked so much about Griffen because he's our "wild" one. I just wanted to take a moment and share about my sweet girl, Sasha!

TTFN!

Julie