Something That the Cat Brought in
Call from my dad:
“The cat caught a snake.”
“A snake?! What kind of snake?”
“No idea.”
“Does it look dangerous?”
“YES!”
“Is it big?”
“YES!”
Needless to say, I was already halfway out the door and on my bike before he hung up.
Who knows, maybe it was an adder!
Highly unlikely in my area, but hey, one must keep dreaming. So I pedaled as fast as I could… to meet The Beast.
Which turned out to be a ridiculously cute baby grass snake, no more than 10 centimeters long.
And… it looked very much dead.
But you don’t fool me twice!
Snake Oscar Goes To…
You see, this wasn’t the first time the cat brought home a snake. A while ago, he proudly presented a full-grown grass snake, bloodied and wide-mouthed in the garden.
“Definitely dead,” I thought.
Until I carefully picked it up and saw a sneaky little tongue flick.
Turns out: grass snakes are excellent actors. To fool predators, they go full drama mode: limp body, rolled-back pupils, gaping mouth and even a fake death scent for that extra realism.
Very convincing.
Playing Dead
Armed with that knowledge, I laid down quietly in the grass.
It started to rain. Hard.
And the snake? It had an extraordinary amount of patience.
But I had just a little more.
Eventually, it broke character.
I snapped a few photos. And we gave it a proper release, far out of cat range
Grass snake fact
Grass snakes are completely harmless to humans. They prefer fish and amphibians, and when scared, they’re more likely to fake their death than to fight.
