These two canines are suspects in the killing of this big snake.
Warm and dry weather means snake season in our neighborhood.
Advocate reader Susan Joiner shared with us this photo of a snake she found dead, ostensibly from dog bites, in her White Rock area backyard.
The most common type of large snake in our neighborhood is a rat snake, says DFW Wildlife founder Bonnie Bradshaw (in an earlier interview).
“It’s 99 percent of what we see in this area. And they can be as big as six feet long, which can be pretty intimidating. But they are not aggressive toward people.”
Bradshaw says these snakes frequently visit yards scavenging for dog food or birdseed, so if you do not want to see one, she says, don’t leave pet food in the yard.
Of course that’s no guarantee if you live in the wild and wonderful woodsy world surrounding White Rock Lake/ Creek/ Trail. As soon as the weather is cool and dry, these snakes appear fairly regularly around here.
The good news is, they eat rats and rodents and they are not poisonous. But dogs can’t distinguish the good snakes from bad and tend to kill indiscriminately. Circle of life, I suppose.
