This week, I walked along the San Antonio River with four of the Wednesday Walkie Talkies. As we covered the stretch between the Pearl Brewery Complex and the Southwest School of Art and Craft, we saw golden-crowned night herons, mallards and egrets--all benign and beautiful.
Last weekend I walked along another waterway, Hondo Creek, and encountered something at the other end of the spectrum: a small, scary-looking snake. My master spotted it and both he and I hustled away. But ever the student of nature, my mistress hung around to observe and take photos.
Now make no mistake, she, too was freaked out as the snake’s heavy body and diamond pattern gave the appearance of a viper. Worse, when she poked a stick in its direction, the serpent made like a cobra and flattened its head. Mary watched for what seemed an eternity as it continued to hold its neck aloft and shoot out its forked black tongue.
Worried for my sake I guess, she moved on as soon as I came back to check on her. When she learned what the snake was, however, she was sorry she hadn’t hung around. Based on photos she took, a herpetologist friend of her son identified it as a harmless hognose snake. If Mary had continued to push a stick at the snake, it would have rolled over and played dead. So I expect if we ever see another I’m in for a long wait.
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