My Life With A Snake Hunter

Thought I would share a few of my experiences of living with a snake hunter in Florida. My husband Frank, the snake hunter in the family often took me along in search of snakes. He had the proper permits to catch poisenous snakes, as well as, nonpoisenous snakes. He taught me the difference between coral and scarlet kingsnakes, both of which are tri-colored. The old saying applied here with "red touch yellow, kill a fella," and "red touch black, friend of jack." Both of these kinds of snakes move pretty fast and I was never comfortable with picking up something unless my husband handed it to me.
Frank also hunted for eastern diamond-backed rattlesnakes. I was scared of these snakes not only because they are very poisenous, but they are masters at blending in with their surroundings. One day we were out hunting and my husband picked up an old car hood lying in the brush. Nothing was under the hood, but as he crouched down and looked around he noticed that between his feet was a big rattlesnake. It was laying there in the sun and he had placed his feet next to it in the deep grass and the snake never moved or rattled a warning. Holding very still Frank slowly stood up then leaped backward four feet landing next to me. As he explained his move and stilled his nerves, I stood there thinking how close he came to being bit. Then after a few minutes he calmly walked over and caught the rattlesnake. That was the closest he ever came to being bit in all our time together.