Neighbor's garter snake

I'll start this story with my grandson Sam.  Sam tried to catch a snake in his yard but the snake got away.  Then a few days later my neighbor called and said she and her brother had a snake in their yard.  I said I would come right over.  I went home and got a cultivator rake and headed over to deal with the snake.  The neighbors were just standing watching the snake which wasn't moving at all but was awake though it appeared that it might be asleep. 

So I stood around with them watching the snake and trying to plan a move to catch the snake somehow with the rake.  When I was about to make my move a car went up the street and made quite a bit of noise.  That's when the snake took off across the grass.  I tried to catch it with the rake like someone would a sheep with a shepherd's hook.  It didn't work.  The snake eventually make in into some creeping susans where it had much more cover than the grass.  I'll call my neighbor Jane.  Jane was fit to be tied.  She didn't want the snake around.  We had to get it.  So another neighbor to Jane, who I'll call Joe, came over and we looked for the snake.  We found it coiled up in the bushes.  We tried again to get it and it got away again.  Finally we found it coiled up again.  When it left this time Joe pinned it to the ground with the cultivator rake and I grabbed it behind it's head with my thumb and forefinger.  I put it in a plastic grocery bag and tied it off.  Now what do we do with it.  I had joked with Jane that we could put it in the black tote that she had sitting right there.  She didn't like that idea and said that she would never use the tote again.  I determined that I would take it to the Jordan River and let it go.  Jane had called animal control but they don't do snakes. 

So I went to a street bridge over the river to release it.  There happened to be a couple of homeless guys there so I asked them if it was OK.  The readily agreed it was OK.  So I released it as close to the river as I could.  It went right to the river and got a healthy drink of water.  I was worried that it may be a little hurt when it was pinned to the ground by the cultivator rake but it moved fine.  One of the homeless guys was impressed that it went right to the river and got a drink as well as I was impressed.   

At first we didn't know what kind of snake it was.  After a couple of days I looked in a Boy Scout Handbook and found that it was a common garter snake.  I didn't know a garter snake had the kind of stripes that this snake had.  With further research on the net I learned that garter snake bear their live young but carry them as eggs until they are ready to hatch.  It's called ovoviviparous.  Some snakes do birth their young without carrying them as eggs.  That's called viviparous.  Some snakes lay their eggs and then go on their way.  That's called oviparous. 

Anyway it was quite humorous fun adventure.  Animals must like my neighbors.  Twice they have had raccoons in their attic.  Animals must know nice people when the see them.  Part of the humor is that I was able to catch a snake though I had help and Sam wasn't.  Another part of the humor was all the worry Jane had over a harmless snake.  Bless her.