Reply #51: Yeah

[TallahasseeGrannie]

they aren't particularly territorial. If you sat in the bench by the pond and knew where to look, you could always find one. Just looking w/ binoculars you could see them swimming. Usually, they stayed put. But in dry weather they came out for some reason, which is odd because their pond was still nice and wet. And in very wet weather they decided the whole farm was their own. We always looked before we stepped down off the porch. In five years living there we probably killed eight or ten. I am not particularly afraid of snakes, even rattlers, who are rather shy and well-mannered. But I think cottonmouths are demons from hell. I'm told they don't kill humans unless it is a very small child that doesn't receive treatment. But they somehow thin out your blood and you bleed internally, which is what happened to our dogs, who we DID get to the vet.