Snakes and Other Natives

Did you ever admire a koi pond? Did you enjoy sitting by the pond, in a bamboo forest, watching the beautiful, peaceful, colorful, cheerful koi drifting to and fro in the sparkling, clear water? Did your eyes twinkle with delight as you fed them by hand? Me too! I enjoyed all those things when I visited the Koi Pond in the Japanese Gardens in Dallas! That's why I decided to put my very own koi pond in my very own back yard!

Now, I need to tell you here that my very own back yard is "wildscaped". This means that it is NOT beautifully manicured. Instead, I allow and encourage native plants to grow in hopes of attracting native creatures, and saving water by using plants that like to live in North Texas. While this does not make me very popular with my neighbors, it does make me popular with all manner of pleasant creatures. So all things considered, a koi pond was probably not the best thing I could add to my yard! But I did it anyway!

It started with a trip to a local warehouse store to buy a 250 gallon pond kit. (It was over 100 degrees that day, and my truck broke down, but that's a different story.) My pond kit consisted of a great, big, black tublike structure, a pump, a black plastic waterfall, and lots of black tubing. All you add is water, and a gravelike hole in the ground! Luckily, I had a friend to provide the hole. (Did I mention it was over 100 degrees?)

I bought a dozen "feeder" goldfish to get it started, and all went well. The first summer passed without incident, and by fall my one-inch "feeders" had become six-inch goldfish with personalities! Even though everyone told me (and all my books agreed) the goldfish could stay in the pond for the winter, I just couldn't bear it. I bought a 50-gallon-tub and brought them in the house, where they happily grew awaiting summer's return. When summer arrived, the real adventure began!

After a string of warm days I moved my goldies back to the pond. The first night they were out, I suddenly took a notion to go out and check on them. Arriving pond side, I found my favorite, biggest fish lying on the grass! I picked him up, and he flopped a bit, so I tossed him back in the pond. The next day, I realized that he had been badly injured! I brought him back inside to treat him, but he died that day.

During the next few weeks, there were no more casualties. I decided to add a few small koi to the pond. They were lovely! And they quickly disappeared! What was eating them? I have seven cats, but they had never shown any interest in the fish, and they didn't seem particularly interested in them now! There were no other animal footprints around the pond and no sign of any predator. Yet, every time I replaced my koi, they vanished. My old goldies, seemed to have "learned the ropes", and there were no more goldfish injuries or disappearances.

Then one morning I was walking in the garden with my cats. SweetieCat-The-Intrepid seemed to be taking a great (if somewhat cautious) interest in something in the tall grass. Upon investigation, I was startled to find a very large, very brown snake peering through the grass. Now, if you know North Texas, you know that this is Water Moccasin country! If you know anything about Water Moccasins, you know they are very large, and very brown, and very poisonous! I proceeded (with a bizarre mix of caution and foolhardiness) to find out more about this snake!

It was coiled loosely, and apparently resting, so I gently moved its head with the end of a six-foot-long hoe handle. It struck the hoe handle, and slipped off into the brush in a leisurely fashion. I felt certain it was not a Water Moccasin for three reasons. First, it had been pretty much out in the open in broad daylight to begin with. That is not Water Moccasin behavior. They usually avoid people at all costs, and come out of hiding at night. Second, I got a better look at it when it struck. It did not seem to have fangs. Nor did it have the huge, swollen cheeks of a poisonous snake. Third, after it struck, it calmly slipped away. That is also not Moccasin behavior. If they do find themselves forced to fight, they're quick to start and slow to stop, and there's nothing leisurely about it!

During the next several months, I saw my resident snake many times. It apparently lived under the waterfall by the pond. It dined and sunned itself at 10 a.m. daily, and it didn't like any interference! Often I would sit about ten feet away and observe it. I couldn't tell how long it was, but it was a big one, dark brown, with a bright yellow belly. I learned from my nature book, the internet, and my fisherman friend that it was a Yellow-Bellied Water Snake. The Yellow-Bellied Water Snake is not a poisonous snake, but it is a bold snake! It is not particularly afraid of people, and it will bite repeatedly and painfully, if cornered. It's bite draws blood and can cause a nasty infection.

All summer long, I watched the snake, and it watched me! When I cooled off in my wading pool after mowing my grass, it would poke it's head out from under the waterfall and peer over at me! It was quite unnerving! Each time I came out to sit by the pond, it became more and more bold. It stretched further and further from the waterfall and showed greater and greater interest in this strange monster that appeared from time to time (ME, that is!)

One day when I was cleaning the pond, the snake came shooting out from under the waterfall in a very threatening manner. I blasted it in the face with the pressure sprayer, and it shot right back in. I realized then that it was probably a female, and she probably had eggs under the waterfall. I knew she would have to go. One giant Yellow-Bellied Water Snake in the yard was more than plenty. A whole yardful would just be too much, even for me, not to mention my neighbors! I decided I would have to catch "The Snakemonster" as my cats and I had come to call her (don't ask!)

The problem was, the snake never got far enough away from the pond for me to be able to catch her, and I wasn't that sure I could, anyway! Then one day I was walking across the back yard when I tripped over something. I looked down and there was the Snakemonster! She was stretched out in the sun, preparing to shed her skin (again because she was getting bigger and bigger and bigger!) By this time she was fully five-feet-long, and as big around as my forearm! I ran and got a rake and a pail with a lid.

When I returned the snake was still there; stupefied by the sun, occupied with shedding her skin, and, I am sad to say, unafraid of me. I carefully slid the head of the rake along her body until I reached what I thought was the back of her head. It was hard to tell in the grass. I pressed it down to pin her to the ground so I could get a safe grip on her (right behind the head) and shove her into the bucket. When she realized she was pinned, she began to thrash around, and I realized I had a foolish plan!

I had placed the head of the rake too far back! It was a good eight inches from her head. There was no way to get a safe grip. I hadn't handled a snake since I was 14-years-old (over 30 years ago!) and I had never handled a snake this big and powerful and angry! I decided to turn her loose and try something different another time. Then I heard my neighbor screaming, "What kind of snake is that? Is that a Water Moccasin?", and I knew I would have to catch the snake or kill her. If I let her go, my neighbor was sure to go straight to the city and complain that I had a yard full of Water Moccasins. That would be the end of my wildscaping.

"No!" I answered. "It's a Yellow-Bellied Water Snake. It's not poisonous. I'm going to catch it and put it in this pail and take it WAY out in the country and turn it loose!"
"Well, alright then...." she said, (the neighbor, that is, not the Snakemonster) and continued to watch me.

I knew I would never be able to get a good grip on that snake. I knew if I got any kind of grip on her at all, she'd wrap herself around my arm, and I wouldn't be able to put her down. And there was no way, no matter what, I was ever going to get her in that pail. I needed a big cloth bag (what we used to call a gunnysack.)

I tried to reposition the rake to get a safer grip. The snake slipped out and headed straight for the pond. I picked up a shovel that was lying nearby and began to kill her. And it was hard, and it took a long time, and I wished I had an axe so she wouldn't suffer so.

When she was dead, but not yet still, I upturned the metal pail to cover her. Later I let the neighbor look at her. I pointed out all the things that made her nonpoisonous. She had bitten a leaf while she was dying and held it in her mouth. A final attempt at defense And it broke my heart. I buried her by the pond under a nice rock, and every day I tell her how sorry I am. I miss seeing her.

Since then I only keep "feeders" in my pond. A baby bullfrog has moved in, and a little snapping turtle, and I'm just going to let them be. My Daddy always taught me the if I'd leave the wild things alone, they'd leave me alone. And he was right, and that's just what I plan to do from now on. If you build it, they will come. All the wild creatures looking for water and sanctuary belong, and Koi do not.