Guardian Kingsnake Answers My Call
Living in the Sonoran Desert north of Phoenix, Arizona, wild animals surround me. I am blessed to interact with them daily. There are a multitude of lizards and snakes. While I respect and appreciate their meditative, ancient, wise presence, I carefully watch for rattlesnakes. I don’t want to startle them and put myself or my dog in danger as we walk our land. They usually stay far away from the house in the wilder areas where Pepito and I don’t walk together.
Two other snakes who keep the rodent population in check and also keep rattlesnakes away are king and gopher snakes. King snakes will kill and eat rattlesnakes. Gopher snakes grow larger than rattlesnakes and compete for territories with them. People generally are happy to see these two snake varieties around for those reasons.
The first snake I encountered when I moved to the desert was a long gopher snake. I digging a plant hole in the garden when a snake silently passed a foot away from my feet. Though he had a similar coloration to a rattlesnake, I checked his head and saw it was not wedge-shaped, and then saw the tail did not have a rattle. I kept still as the gigantic eight-foot-long gopher snake moved past me. No other snake has broken this record for the longest snake I had ever seen in the desert.
When I see gopher snakes or the black and white king snakes, this reassures me that there will be no rattlesnakes nearby. While I am still watchful, I feel protected by these beautiful reptile neighbors. Both snake varieties like to soak in my small front and back porch fountains, which cools them down on hot summer days and helps them loosen and shed their skin.
I hadn’t seen a gopher or king snake in the garden in weeks, and I wondered why. I thought about how much I appreciated their presence. I also was a bit more cautious about rattlesnakes when my dog, Pepito, and I went out the door.
The next day the king snake, who had been visiting year after year, appeared in the back porch fountain. I knew he was responding to my thought of how much I appreciated seeing him around and made his presence obvious. To confirm how he was protecting us, later in the day, as I walked to the house after visiting the chickens, the king snake appeared and crossed only a few feet in front of me. I was surprised by how close he had come and how calm he was. They usually stay further away from human feet. I got his intention to let me know he was doing his job to keep us safe from rattlesnakes and thanked him.
Note: The guardian kingsnakewas was guarding the territory around my house, which was far away from the encounter with Grandfather Rattlesnake mentioned in the next blog.
