Coachwhip story
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Posted by Terry on October 08, 2000 at 14:13:09:
Thought some of you might be interested in this tale from my youth, this must have been about 1966.
I used to go riding around the oil fields near Sundown, Texas with my uncle, who worked there. One day we saw a large coachwhip in the middle of a dirt road. I was never afraid of snakes, and my uncle stopped the truck so I could "run and catch it". The snake started off in the direction of a thick clump of mesquite, and I ran ahead of it in an attempt to intercept it. When our paths met, the snake came up off the ground on the low weeds. Before I knew it that snake was literally in my face, his long, lean head wide open! I quickly hopped to one side, the snake dove into the mesquite thicket, and that was the end of that. My uncle laughed for the rest of the afternoon.
I have kept a lot of different native snakes over the years, but never a coachwhip. I caught a baby one a month or so ago and brought it home to show my wife. She decided it was "cute", to my surprise. So I whipped together a cage and the little guy is doing fine on pinkies. He has tamed down a lot and will let me hold him without biting. He is quite different from snakes I have kept in the past in that he is very alert and keen to what is going on around him. I say "he", but don't know what sex it is.
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