"We had pet snakes when I was growing up," says Jackie Carnes.
"Once when I was in college, I was watching children during the summer for a his/hers/ours family. One part of my job was to put all six kids in the car once a week and get a pet store mouse to feed the pet snake.
"Not a problem; it was something I'd done before. One week, however, 'Ninja Mouse' fought back! It bit the snake in the mouth as it tried to strike, causing the snake to land open-mouthed in the gravel in the bottom of its enclosure.
"After securing Ninja Mouse in a tall terrarium, out of which it almost jumped several times, I tended to the snake.
"As I pried its mouth open and used tweezers to pull out the gravel, and a cotton swab and water to rinse it thoroughly, I remember thinking it was a very good thing I wasn't squeamish.
"Their mom returned Ninja Mouse to the pet store and got a much tamer one. After giving the snake's mouth a couple of days to heal, he got fed."
Reader request
Here's a plea from Kathleen S. Crago, of New Orleans:
"Please, please, please — no more stories about snakes! I am spilling my coffee, shaking again!"
(OK, Kathleen, for you I'm running no more snake stories — after this one).
Killer's remorse
"The year was 1968," says Edwin Fleischmann, of Metairie.
"My family and I were living on Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.
"We had left the house, leaving to go on vacation, when we saw a small garter snake near the front door of the house, not bothering anybody.
"My family started yelling, 'Kill it ... kill it ...!'
"I didn’t want to, but eventually I gave in, got a shovel, and killed it.
"To this day I regret killing that small, defenseless, harmless snake!"
Spitting image
"In the paper, I saw that Foo Fighters performed at Jazz Fest," says Faye Hoffman Talbot, of Clinton.
"It reminded me of the time my sister and I met Foo Fighter Dave Grohl's father and stepmother on a cruise.
"The dad told us he and his wife checked into a hotel and the young receptionist recognized the last name and asked if they were related to Dave.
"He told her he was Dave's dad. She looked at the stepmother and said, 'He looks just like you.'"
There were two things wrong with this, says Faye.
"She was probably too young to be his mom — and she was Asian.
"We all had a good laugh!" says Faye.
Fearsome Farmers
Mention of school mascots brought this response from Mary Ann Riddle, of Baton Rouge:
"Farmerville is a rural community in north Louisiana.
"A coach came in years ago and tried to rename the team, but I'm told they are still 'The Farmers.'
"Scary team name, huh?"
(They're the Fighting Farmers, which helps the fear factor. It would really be scary if they took the field driving John Deere tractors.)
Special People Dept.
Ona Escott, of Lafayette, celebrates her 97th birthday Tuesday, May 7.
Say what?
Diana Gail Romero has a "mangled words" tale:
"Years ago at a well-known restaurant/dancehall on the levee, the owner made an announcement before the Cajun music started.
"There had been some hell-raising the weekend before, and he said that wasn’t going to happen again!
"He said he had hired a bumper (bouncer), and anyone causing trouble was going to have to pay the quenseconses (consequences)."