I have always been a lover of animals. I grew up with two cats and two dogs at a time, along with an array of rodents. When I was younger, I wanted to be a veterinarian, but then I realized all the sadness that would entail and decided on other career moves (bless the doctors that take care of animals).

Growing up, I lived near a lake with all sorts of creatures nearby. I will admit, my best friend J and I did some weird things with animals. Not the mean kind of weird, more like the endearing kind of weird. One time we married my gerbils. Another time we married caterpillars. And then, of course, we also married garter snakes. We took these marriages very seriously, by the way. We would design wedding dresses and write the vows. It was a whole affair, the event of the season.

Speaking of garter snakes, we would catch as many as we could. Not just to marry them, but to play with them as well. We took a wheelbarrow and filled it with grass, leaves, and whatever else we thought garter snakes would enjoy, then proceeded to fill the wheelbarrow with a few snakes (we did not want to crowd them, of course). Then, we would roll this wheelbarrow all over the neighborhood. We were those kids.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) my mom is a gardener, so there was always a plethora of snakes to grab. She had beautiful rose bushes where most of the snakes hung out. Don’t worry, we only got cut and snagged a handful of times, but that did not stop our efforts. Every summer we would catch these snakes and handle them and take them on walks and this was completely normal.

I am actually not completely comfortable with snakes, but maybe that is because they can sense the fact that I grabbed their brethren, put them in a wheelbarrow, and forced them into matrimony. We are wary of each other, but snakes are still pretty cool (and no, I no longer catch garter snakes).