{"id":1180,"date":"2009-11-22T22:39:21","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T02:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/?p=1180"},"modified":"2009-11-23T00:16:51","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T04:16:51","slug":"menagerie-rogue-snake-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/2009\/11\/22\/menagerie-rogue-snake-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Menagerie:  Rogue Snake Department"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a title=\"thief by warwalker_2000, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/warwalker\/4126417555\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Thief\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2590\/4126417555_f5a47e8544_m.jpg\" alt=\"thief\" width=\"240\" height=\"234\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judging by the beret, this particular criminal must be French.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Let&#8217;s play a little game, shall we?\u00a0 Why don&#8217;t you tell me what species of reptile you see coiled in the leaves in the picture below.\u00a0 I should mention that the little cretin was, um, what&#8217;s the word, &#8220;rattling&#8221; his tail when discovered.\u00a0\u00a0 By &#8220;discovered&#8221;, of course, I mean &#8220;nearly trod upon&#8221; during a brief late-morning survey Spouse and I conducted of the western environs of Juniorvania;\u00a0 tramping about in the brush is a lovely way to spend some time in the warm sun of a mid-November forenoon, cup of tea in hand &#8211; provided, of course, that one&#8217;s woodsy saunter is not interrupted by pestilential menaces and assorted blackguards of the animal kingdom intent on doing you in. \u00a0\u00a0 My perambulations seemed to disturb our most recently discovered visitor, as Spouse advises me that the vicious little scoundrel actually struck at my pant leg as I strode through his immediate vicinity, blissfully unaware of the potentially mortal threat currently attempting to assassinate me.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s make an identification, you amateur herpatologists:\u00a0 tell me what sort of a beast you think it was that made such a brazen attempt upon my life. \u00a0 Take a close look at the markings. \u00a0 Remember, if you will, the rattling of the tail;\u00a0 it&#8217;s difficult to forget, I can assure you, for those who have had occasion to make the personal acquaintance of this little villainous bastard.\u00a0\u00a0 The taxonomic process ought to be a little less stressful for you to do in the comfort of your own presumably adder-free home than it was for me during my dangerous, death-defying afternoon stroll among the serpentine assassins concealed around the perimeter of Juniorvania with evil in their repitlian hearts.\u00a0\u00a0 It will be easier for you to summon up Google and tap-tap-tap a couple of keystrokes,\u00a0 possibly noshing on a little snack, as you idly venture a guess about the <a title=\"Currently facing charges in the courts of Juniorvania - we show no mercy to animal attackers\" href=\"http:\/\/www.herpnet.net\/Iowa-Herpetology\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=51&amp;Itemid=26\" target=\"_blank\">identity of my would-be killer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Things were considerably less serene here as we embarked upon the process, I can tell you.\u00a0 It involved rather a lot more screaming than I suspect most professional biologists employ during the conduct of their work, which screaming was spiced with a liberal dose of anxious profanity.\u00a0 Still, we managed to get the photo and avoid entirely a trip to hospital, so all&#8217;s well that end&#8217;s well I suppose.\u00a0 Except of course that somehow, during the identification process, the pint-sized terrorist managed to flee the scene of the crime and remains at large, a fugitive from Juniorvanian justice.\u00a0 No doubt the little miscreant is plotting his next murderous escapade, so visitors to these parts should consider security precautions and have an eye to the ground when travelling alone.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1179\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/run-in-with-a-milk-snake-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1179\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1179\" title=\"run in with a milk snake copy\" src=\"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/run-in-with-a-milk-snake-copy-300x220.jpg\" alt=\"He may be small, but he's a criminal.\" width=\"450\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/run-in-with-a-milk-snake-copy-300x220.jpg 300w, http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/run-in-with-a-milk-snake-copy-1024x753.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1179\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">He may be small, but he&#39;s a criminal.<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a title=\"20091122_What Kind of Snake_0796 by warwalker_2000, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/warwalker\/4126318396\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, under the leaf in the middle, \" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2750\/4126318396_c8b366b0ff.jpg\" alt=\"20091122_What Kind of Snake_0796\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, under the leaf in the middle, you can see the rattling thing on the end of the rattling thing.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Judging by the beret, this particular criminal must be French.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s play a little game, shall we? Why don&#8217;t you tell me what species of reptile you see coiled in the leaves in the picture below. I should mention that the little cretin was, um, what&#8217;s the word, &#8220;rattling&#8221; his tail when discovered. By [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,33,42,16],"tags":[900,901,902,903,899],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1180"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1184,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions\/1184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}