It’s a garter snake. We used to pick them up off the beach all the time when we were kids. I’m not afraid of them but I leave them alone now. They don’t generally bite humans (that I know of) but probably would if antagonized by some rascally kid (thinking of our childhood friend Kevin with his Alvin the chipmunk voice). I do have a pic (and video) somewhere of a garter snake eating a toad. Taken by the GG.

We have one venomous snake in the Great Lake State, the Massasauga rattler. They live in areas near the Planet Ann Arbor but are rarely seen. They certainly aren’t in my yard. Up at the moominbeach, the only snakes I have ever seen are garter snakes and grass snakes, little green snakes, grass green. I’m not sure if grass snake is an official name, just what we always called them as kids. Probably that’s what my dad’s generation called them. A quick and dirty google was not helpful.

So, who the heck is the cat? That’s Mike aka Muksaslooie aka The Fur Nerd and I fergit what else. He was gifted to my cousin Susie but she was in grad school at the time and did not have time to take care of a cat. No problem. The White Tornado (Susie’s mom, my aunt) loved cats and took him on and he became a beach cat. His home base was The White Tornado’s house but he also spent a lot of time at Radical Betty’s, where Uncle Duke often complained about being a doorman to a cat. Muk occasionally visited the moomincabin but The Commander wasn’t all that crazy about cats and would only let him in if she thought I was sleeping a bit late and needed a huge cat to walk on my head.

Muksaslooie was a Great Hunter. Moles and milk for breakfast? Yes. One day a bunch of us were slogging around on the beach when Muksas came along with a grass snake in his mouth (alive). He dropped the snake on the sand and sat on it with a smug look on his face, like “look what *I’m* gonna have for lunch!” Problem. He sat there long enough for the snake to slither out from underneath him. There was quite a kerfuffle when Muksas decided to proceed with lunch and the snake was gone. Lots of pawing at the sand and laughter from his human beach slogger audience.

Photo credit (snake) to my mouse who had the day off and was apparently romping around in the woods somewhere. This was the first garter snake of the year, at least the first that mouse saw.

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