A slippery


We get quite a lot of rescues at this time of year involving grass snakes. With all the waterways around our fields, they are a common occurrence in our area. Most are trapped in nets like the one pictured or sometimes taken indoors by cats - much to the horror of the home owner! We were called out to a snake in a garden near Brent Knowle. We always try to attend as it can sometimes be an escaped pet but in this case it was a grass snake curled up under a paving stone and the lady who owned the garden was very frightened of it.


We try to encourage people to leave them alone because if they find a grass snake on their property, it means that it is suitable habitat and even if you remove


rescue - 2 in 1!


them another one will move in. Anyway, this lady was not to be swayed and Pauline bent down to pick the snake up in the long grass only to first find a toad that had been bitten and had an air sac protruding from the wound. Placing the toad in a box, she then went on to get the snake and secured it in a pillow case. A relieved member of the public waved goodbye. Pauline released the snake by a nearby waterway and returned to Secret World with the wounded Toad.


Sara set to work and managed to stitch the air sac back into the body and once the wound had healed he was back to the wild in a garden. A missed meal as far as the snake was concerned but a second chance for the toad!


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