My friend the garter snake

In my garden, like anywhere in and around Park City, we’ve got a familiar snake, called the western terrestrial garter snake (Thamnophis elegans).

It’s not venomous, so that’s already a good thing.

My wife noticed one sunning on the rocks surrounding our backyard sitting area a few days ago, and I had seen one on a few occasions last year next to our veggie garden.

More than 20 years ago, as I was driving my daughter to school, I saw a small one coiled on the door-opening lever of the passenger side door, just where she was sitting, and discreetly stopped the car, got the snake out before she would discover it herself and scream hysterically.

The little critter had sneaked into the car as I was loading some firewood.

This said, I’ve never ever been comfortable in the presence of snake and I hope that I’ll get used to them, if not, something will need to change. Me or the snake!