I had three boys. Each of them had/has a fascination with snakes to this day!

I had to get over my fear when my oldest got a baby gopher snake when he was eight yrs old. He thought he was brave until the snake got out one day. Like you, I wasn't going to have a snake loose in the house so we set out to find him.

He was looking in his room when I started down the hallway. Who should I meet but the new snake. I called for my son, he came, tried to pick him up and quickly got bitten. Guess who had to pick up the snake them? You got it! The difference was, I picked him up by his head, where my son had tried to pick him up by the tail!

Can't remember what the snake's name had been before that but it changed to "Spike" that day.

I became an expert at catching snakes from that day on.

My youngest still brings me his new acquisitions to hold and like a good mother, I take the snake from him and let it twist around my forearm. His kids were amazed that I didn't freak the first time he did that.

In turn, I was amazed when my oldest took a Hog Nose snake from his little brother and got all excited about it. He's such a computer geek these days that I had forgotten who had introduced me to snakes.