By Glen Wunderlich

In Michigan, we tend not to concern ourselves with snakes when we spend time outdoors.  Other than our only poisonous snake, the Massasauga rattlesnake, we really don’t have reason to be fearful.  But, when my wife showed me a photo of one of the slithering creatures she had taken minutes before in our yard, I became unglued.  It appeared to be a rattler.

Eastern Milk Snake

She explained that one of our cats had noticed something from inside the house and the next thing she knew, the cat was outdoors in attack mode.  Although it wasn’t clear initially what the cat had spotted, a commotion erupted between the cat and the unwitting visitor.  When I saw the photo on the camera’s screen, and was told that it rattled, off we went to investigate.

My first reaction was to be careful no matter what it was.  The size and shape of the head didn’t seem to match that of a Massasauga.  In addition, its length eemed on the large size for a Massasauga.  So, we managed to place it into a paper lawn bag for further observation. Read more