I extended my right hand toward a snake. As I awoke, I saw it was a coiled rattlesnake. Maybe this isn't a good idea. I slowly withdrew my hand.

I’ve been thinking of snakes lately. When I was a girl, every walk in the yard or pasture contained some element of danger. Not because of grass snakes and king snakes, though they were startling. And the rat snake up on the barn rafter above the chickens, it was as big around as a grown man's arm. Eww. But the real concern was water moccasins and rattlers. Common and poisonous.

Since I arrived here in Louisiana in March, I haven’t encountered a single snake of any variety. I asked my dad about it. He can’t remember when he last saw one. The barn storage area once was littered with snakeskins. He can’t remember when he last found a snakeskin.

There are frogs. I’ve seen a raccoon, a possum, an armadillo. More species of birds than I ever remember. Dragonflies and mosquitoes and the green lizards with the red necks and the black lizards with dark red heads.

I’m scared of snakes, so on one level, I don’t miss them. But with none evident, something seems wrong. A broken link in the ecosystem? Worth paying attention.

(I believe the snake in the photo above is a harmless little king snake. I took the picture in Hays County in Texas a couple years ago.)