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| It's time to watch where you step. |
He had taught me to always go slowly and be whistling or trying to sing when I went into the barn so Blackie would have time to hide. Blackie was the big black snake that had been there for many years.
Blackie had earned his right to live in the barn. The story was told about the time everyone gathered around to watch Blackie fighting with another snake. They cheered him on as he was fighting. Often he would stop fighting, go to the fence row and eat a little plant that grew there and go back to fight some more. Blackie fought until he killed his opponent, a big copperhead!
Blackie did bite someone. I often heard that funny story. The door near the top of the barn was open so the loft could be filled with hay. Granddaddy, barefooted, was in the loft catching the hay with a pitch fork as it was being pitched up to him from the wagon below.
Suddenly Granddaddy jumped out of the loft scared half to death. He was sure Blackie had bitten him on the big toe. How everyone laughed when he couldn't find any broken skin. During the thirteen years I lived there, I never saw Blackie.
Years later, however, I enjoyed a snake. I really liked Old Pete, the big black snake that had probably always lived near my little cabin in Missouri. I would often see him watching me. One time I kept somebig boys from killing him.
At another place I lived, we watched a black snake kill a copperhead. My little boy had run out from behind the cellar to tell us about it. "Mom, I peed on him and then he saved my life!"
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| The black snake is harmless to humans. |
According to the National Wildlife Federation, a least 20% of the U.S. population suffers some degree of snake fear. Getting to know the kinds, natural history and distribution of Missouri's snakes can help you overcome your fear of them and appreciate there role in nature.
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G9450#id
And to learn more about barns
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