Oooh a Snake!

A few days ago we spent the day at the Mattson's and while the kids were playing Jen discovered a black rat snake in her front yard. She loves snakes and couldn't pass up the opportunity to check this one out. She found that it was calm and so we gathered the kids around to show them this snake too. They learned that the white coloring under it's belly told them it was young. They learned where the musky smell that the snake was emitting was coming from and how it used this as a defense against preditors. We also learned that you must remain calm and move slowly....or you will get bit! Poor Cailin, she was holding the snake when the little ones got a tad over antsy--this unnerved the snake and it struck. Cailin was bit three times on her forearm before Jen was able to get the snake away from her. She cried brave silent tears, it hurt! Yet, she was quite the trooper, after the washing, cleaning, and bandaging of the bites she said that it hurt worse than a cat's bite, but not too much more than that. I asked her if she'll hold another one, "Sure, as long as no little kids are around!!" she replied.
The snake is using it's tounge to smell Connor and check him out. He is the first of my crew to hold the snake. At first he was a bit apprehensive and then he replied "yah, I'm going to hold it, after all I'm going to be a wildlife biologist, you know, I'm sure I'll have lots of other snakes to hold."
The snake kept wrapping it's body around their arms and even tried to slitter to some of their necks and backs.

Cailin with Jared and Clarissa before the strike!