Blackie, as she was released.
By Dick and Patti Bartlett

Blackie has been our backyard black racer for 5+ years now. Although not tame she was very tolerant of our movements around her, spent much time hunting anoles in the backyard and often sunned on the back steps.

I won’t say we actually loved her, but we surely looked forward to her visits on all but the coldest days.

About 2 months ago Blackies sustained a serious mauling by our Aussie Shepherd. The mauling, we thought when separating the 2, would be fatal. Blackie had badly torn skin and her back seemed broken in 2 places.

But she was alive. Patti carefully brought the snake inside and I coiled her as gently as possible on the bottom of a 10 gallon tank, straightened her back at the breaks, covered her, and hoped for the best, whatever that could be.

Against all odds, she was alive the next morning, lifting her head and flicking her tongue when I put my hand in the tank. But she hadn’t moved her body position so I dropped some dried leaves atop her an added feeling of security, added a water dish, and let her be. And so it went, day after day.

But then one day about 3 weeks later she had moved, half her body length was atop the leaves and she was busily flicking her tongue. I moved her to the water dish, she drank, and I noticed she was entering a shedding cycle. A few days later she began shedding, I assisted, and was pleased to see that when I touched her sides behind both breaks she moved away from my finger. She had feeling!

We decided to keep her captive through our winter, just hoping she’ll be releasable when the warmth again pervades.

Footnote: She was released on 24 Feb 2021 and was last seen periscoping for anoles. Good luck, Blackie.