***!!!!!! Still Shrieking Inside and Seeing Things - Not Lizzie But Snakey!!!!!***
 

:eek::eek:I'm sitting here trying to type like an adult but I have twice seen something move out of the corner of my eye and jumped like I was shot! Wasn't going to post this and show my cur spirit and my yellow streak and void where a spine would be and have been trying to surf YT, post normally to work out my nerves but seeing the second movement has me freaked. I KNOW it is imagination and extreme nerves and nothing is there but here is what happened:

About 4:30 today I ran into PetSmart to pick up Tibbe some dog food and couldn't find his brand. Picked him up a new dog bed and got in line behind this guy at the Banfield service counter to ask about it and, as I'm walking up, am digging in my purse for my phone, etc. Standing there doing the phone stuff and look up - RIGHT INTO THE EYES OF A SNAKE!!! A BLOODY SNAKE! (It wasn't really bloody I just want to use a swear word and I can't so Sally & Harry will understand I am cussing-unnerved here.)

This man had a darn(not my word of choice) around his neck, with its beady eyes right at my eye level and soooooo close! So, to make a long story short - I'm severely snake phobic. Severely. More than severely. Crazy snake phobic! I just began going backward and flailing my arms, not seeing anything and certainly not breathing anymore. I wanted to scream and nothing was coming out. Here is the embarrassing part - one of the vets came out & I almost ran to her and stood behind her like a 4 year old. She asked me how to help, I guess I croaked out what I was there for and then said "snake - snake" & pointed like a 2 year old. Well, the manager came, got my dog food and saw me out. Don't really remember the drive home.

I swear I am seeing Mr. Snakey out of the corner of my eye and getting recreeped all over again. I have NEVER been that close to a snake and certainly not a big one like that. That guy had some type of carrier & why the blank he didn't have that thing in it, I will never know. Eeeeeeeeeeee!!!! My skin has those goose bumps on it all over again. I do not know how my system stood it. I really don't. But I know this - there won't be much sleeping in this house tonight as I'm jumping at everything. Even Tibbe! And if Lizzie should reappear tonight somehow on the same day I had to meet Mr. Snakey up close & personal, you all will likely never hear of me again. :eek::eek::eek:

Ok...not funny at all!!! I would have fainted dead away at the checkout. I can't believe someone was walking around in a store with a snake around their neck and that they let it get that close to another patron in the store.:eek:

Jeanie I would have done the same thing! Snakes scare me so bad! YOur story reminds me of when I picked Georgie up from the Vet after his dental. I walk up to discharge and look up at a Rat staring at me!!!!! The guy in front of me had a Rat on his shoulder!!!! I thought I was going to fall out! I walked around to the other desk and politely asked if I could check out there. Thankfully they said yes!

For those of us that are phobic, it is so traumatic and those that don't have the fear can never ever ever ever understand the fear and the revulsion and the outrage at someone forcing you to unexpectedly face something so awful to you. Thinking back, that thing was wrapped around his neck and its old head was obviously coming toward me to check me out - I guess when it sensed my warmth! Yuuuuuck. If I hadn't looked up when I did and if that thing had somehow touched me, I'd likely be tied down in the mental home right now getting massive injections of drugs to just shut off the screaming! I wonder how much of that stuff it would take to shut me down. Only God and my sister know how I hate those things! (She's got the same phobia.)

I don't think you have anything to be embarrassed about. My brother was one of those snake people. He always had one on him when out in public and was known to get kicked out of places when one would stick its head out from an arm sleeve. I learned to tolerate them and kind of enjoy handling one once in a while, but I totally understand the fear some people have of them. I think the people handling them should be considerate and not assume the person standing next to them is ok with one. (My brother always thought it was funny to scare the Wal-Mart cashier...really...it is NOT funny) He could have given you some kind of warning he had a snake. At least, generally with a dog, you see it before you approach a person and can voluntarily choose to keep your distance. Snakes blend in so well that they do take you by surprise and can potentially cause a medical emergency. I'm glad you were able to make it home even if you don't remember the drive. :p:eek:

Oh, Shelly, it did blend in with his actual coloring. Even if I'd been looking up I don't know if I'd have noticed it until it stuck its head out. It was - yuck - blonde colored with some type pale, rust-colored spots on it. The guy was pale, blonde and had rust spots on his face and neck - I guess from sun. It was soooo gross and so awful to face something you are so repulsed and fear right there in your face. I am still jumpy! Eeeeewwwwww.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: Oh my goodness!!!! I would be at the ER with a massive heart attack! Jeanie, you and I just aren't having much luck in the animal department are we? :D:D Lizards seem a whole lot less creepy!!

OMGosh! I'm laughing so hard I'm crying... not at you but your story was so well written I felt like I was right there!

I also had extreme snake phobia, and I still don't like strange snakes in my face, not crazy about ones I know in my face for that matter.

I've done a huge amount of thinking on this subject... of my snake fear. It all boils down to the fear of death...by snake. Once I realized they normally do not kill people, I lost the fear and/or worked through it... the very traumatic part of it anyway, the part that immobilizes me.

So I will tell you what you need to know. If a big constrictor starts to wrap tightly around your neck (deadly situation), you need to start at the tail end and unwind it, or tell people to help you do this to get the snake off. This will save your life.

If you come across a snake in your yard, grab a trashcan lid (one with the handle in the center), you can block any strikes with it, or your umbrella. Then back slowly away from it.

The majority of snakes eat rodents. If they bite your hand and don't let go right away, if you carry water, pour some in it's mouth, it will let go. If you don't have water, remain still. It will not eat you. As soon as it realizes you are not a rodent, it will let go.

Don't try to pull your hand out of it's mouth, their teeth point towards their thoat and it will make the bite worse. Or if you are with friends, they can slide two credit cards between your skin and the snake's teeth. Once the credit cards are blocking the teeth, you'll be able to slide your hand out.

I've had worse bites and infections from dogs and cats, and they are much more painful. Now if you've read this post, even subconsciously these tools will be in your mind, and in an instance of extreme fear, you'll remember how to get yourself out of a dangerous situation. Snakes may hurt you, but they can't kill you when you know what to do.

OMG :eek::eek: Seriously!!!???? You have this written out so calmly. If one bites my hand I will surely die! :eek::eek: At least from a heart attack!! :D:D And I am just guessing but I think Jeanie will be the same way! :p:D

I'm truly not fearful of dying from a snake bite. It is crazier than that. I hate the very idea of snakes - they offend me for just being. Sounds crazy I know & I can't explain it but I'm just as revulsed by them as I am fearful of them. I truly don't think they can hurt me in any way - they'd have to catch me first! :) But they can make me hurt myself or someone else should that person try to scare or tease me with one. I have NEVER been touched by one. I recently came to the notion that I could maybe work up the nerve over time to touch one but after today, I know that was a flight of fancy. I don't like anything creepy or crawly but snakes are the worst to me. I've honestly tried to like them, desensitize to them but I really can't. Eww. Ewwww. Eeeeeeewwwwwwwwww.

This is hilarious... I got a good laugh reading about your reaction Jeanie!

You would have been really freaked out about the rattlesnake we found at the dog park last week. A couple of people killed it with a shovel and then I took a picture of it.

The keep calm part of this had me giggling. LOL My brother always kept alcohol close by for his snakes if they were to get aggressive. Any form of alcohol will work, the rubbing alcohol or the beverage. When splashed onto a constrictor it instantly cools them and causes their muscles to release. (I suggest the drinkable kind. You might want any leftovers.)

EEEEEeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww!!!!! I'd still be running if I'd seen that. I could probably make Usain Bolt look like he was standing still in a race if someone were chasing me with that, dead or not!

OMG, we don't have poisoness snakes here, unless in captivity. That's partly why I tolerate them, AND where I would draw the line. :eek:

Great! Now I find they're drunks, too, zoning out on alcohol! Gross! Even details of their lives are too disgusting.

Try the ladies handbag dept for a snakeskin or python purse...

I probably could touch that kind of snake skin, just not the long, skinny, still-intact ones. Wish we were as snakeless as Ireland. Often thought about a trip there just to enjoy the knowing I'm in a land free or nearly free of them!

:D Oh Jeanie....we're snake-less too, you're both very welcome to have a little pop to calm your nerves....:D

And I think 'Hissing Sid' is a lovely name for your new friend...don't you?!!? ;) :eek: :D Sally + Harry x

Really? Surrey is snakeless!?! How do you manage that? Texas surely needs your secrets!

"Hissing Sid" is good. I wish someone would hiss Sid right out of town, though! I may never work up the courage to go in that PetSmart again. Or if I do, get a bouncer to go with me and walk behind him the whole time! He could toss any blonde men with yucky blonde snakes around their neck and I'll pay his fines, court costs & attorney's fees. Am not a drinker but if someone had offered me a brandy as I was standing there behind the vet I bet I would have gulped it down!

:D The whole of the UK is snake-less Jeanie - apart from tiny harmless adders (and I've never seen one in the whole of my 55 years....!!!). We can buy them in pet shops, and see them at the zoo - but I've never seen one meandering down the street....;) :D

You poor lady - you're not having much luck with your reptile-y things, are you (oh, and maybe you'd best invest in a little hip-flask?!!? :D) x

Good Morning! Did you sleep well? (or at all!):D Hope you have a better day today!

Do you like rats and mice? If the US happens to lose all it's snakes... we would quickly become overrun with rodents... remember the Huntavirus scare a few years back resulting from the annual rattlesnake hunt? Not a nice alternative...

Didn't sleep that well - was a bit jumpy still but slept a lot more than I thought I would. I think the evening of Don Knotts' vibrating used up all my energy and I had to sleep.

Ugh! Don't like rats or mice or spiders or lizards(!) or bugs but I am not crazy phobic of them like with S's. If that had been a rat, would have revulsed & creeped & definitely walked the other way but not nuts over the top and standing behind the vet, pointing, & speaking in single syllables. I truly wish I could conquer this weakness as it is very unpleasant when your giant screen HD TV flashes 5 feet of the open mouth of one on the screen or shows one buggying across the dessert sands. Things like that are NOT fun but at least big screen TV's & all the nature channels have started to desensitize me to them a little. In the old days, I would have left the room until the picture was gone off the screen.

I used to be phobic of flying(and let's say my first flight to a resort town was not pretty) but got to the point that I flew weekly for a while so I know phobias can be conquered if you keep at it. I truly wonder where phobias start? I mean the flying fear is from the fear of falling for over a minute knowing you are going to die all that time but I don't understand the fear of snakes. I don't worry they will get near enough me to bite me or even fear their bite - I just detest the idea of them and think they should not be around though practically I know they help mankind in many way. Just wonder how the heck my sister & I got so darned afraid of something so little and overall harmless. But I'd probably rather face King Kong than have one chase me or get on me! That's the ultimate fear - one getting on me and having it touch me and crawl on me. Eeeewwwww ....eeewwwww.....eeeeewwwwww. Now that, I fear.

Anybody else this totally weird about something like bugs or things like that?

Jeanie, I am that way with spiders. Most people see them as a tiny insect pest, but they are enormous to me. I'll never forget a nightmare I had as a kid that my bed was infested with spiders, then when I was 16 I got bit by one that was in my pant leg and spent 3 days with my leg elevated as two red streaks crept up my thigh like a highway mapped out on my skin. And, I'll never forget the day I found the first (yes, I said first) brown recluse spider in my house in my daughter's bed. Our house became ifested with them after we replaced carpet. Did you know spiders love warehouses and dry places, like rolls of carpet :eek:? We moved. I decided education is key and I wasn't going to live in fear. I researched everything I could about spiders and learned which ones were dangerous and which ones are harmless. I still don't like them and am fearful but not like I used to be.

Snakes are similar. Some are actually very very good. Did you know that bull snakes, that we have here in KS, save farmers millions of dollars every year for rodent control. Like KJC said, they eat the rodents that spread disease and cause damage to property, AND they are perfectly harmelss to humans. Same with many other kinds. The same cannot be said for the exotic snakes that were once pets that aret turned loose. It's sad to see what they are doing to Florida. One of these species is most likely what you seen on this guy's neck.

To get over my fear, I began working for a local snake breeder. He taught me how to take care of the baby snakes that were produced. He started out breeding Albino Boa Constrictors. The babies are around 1.5 feet long at birth. I used to tame them by handling them a few times a week, and they would wrap around my wrist and squeeze a bit.... felt like a little hug. They are not slimy at all, they feel like very soft leather.

An odd behavior we noticed one time as we were feeding them... some of the babies would wag they tails after they were given their food, just like a happy little dog. They each have their own personalities, and can recognize individual people. They are really amazing critters.

And I believe too, that Mommie snakes can count!

Oh, Kathy, I saw your first line and bailed. No can do. The very idea of an "s" breeder is so repulsive I could hyperventilate thinking of it for very long. I'm so far away from even wanting to get that much better as to go where they are bred that it is laughable right now. I'd as soon be swimming with sharks or something. This isn't fear - it's severe phobia and irrational and going where they are bred or even talking to a breeder even on the phone is so repugnant. Irrational as it is, someone that has that many snakes around them is very weird to me & I wouldn't want to know them. That's how bad this is. Now I might could go where the make toy rubber ones and tour the factory but would likely sit up all night with my feet under me and not on the floor!!! I can only hope to get slightly better but know I won't ever be near normal. But I've come a long way - in the past had I seen a snake that close to me, I likely would have run screaming in front of all those people and would never, ever think of going to ANY pet store again. And could never have posted about it. My sis hasn't been in a pet store for over 15 years because she went in one that had them in terrariums! Refuses. Has her helper get her dog's food and products! But for now, I can only keep taking minute little steps like watching a TV commercial that has one on it(cannot stand to see several at once w/out shutting my eyes even on TV) and I do touch & sometimes pick up a toy one in the stores when I get the chance and then go eat chocolate. It's pretty bad right now, Kathy. I'll just quake along here as I am for a while before I take any more steps to get better. Guess right now I'm still super revulsed by yesterday!!! And I am sitting on my feet just posting!

Maybe one day I'll do some research but until I quit sitting on my feet and jumping when something moves, I think I'll wait a bit. You are very brave!!!

:eek: Boy, they had this piece on anaconda's last night on TV and I was sure glad I didn't have to face something that size at the pet store!!! Those things are huge.

They were talking about this snake being a type of "cult hero" from some movie! Does anyone know what movie one of these "starred" in? Cause I think I would like to be sure I never tune that one in.