THE ADVENTURES OF NOSEE

Part I of II

Once upon a time there was a garter snake that was born along with six other garter snakes in a dark and gloomy cave. He was different than his brother and sister snakes. He couldn’t see-he was blind. Not only that, he was entirely white from his head down to his tail. He was an albino, only he didn’t know it because he was blind. His brothers and sisters called him “NoSee” since he couldn’t see. They didn’t know how to treat him. He was so strange and difficult to be with. While he was growing up with his brothers and sisters, NoSee couldn’t keep up with them. He slithered around but he kept banging into things and lost his way sometimes. His siblings paid no attention to him and wouldn’t even try to find him. He became sad and lonely.

On one of his family’s trips to learn how to hunt, he wandered off and really lost his way. He slithered around and around but couldn’t find the scent of his family – that is the way garter snakes stay together.

What was he to do? It was getting toward nightfall and he didn’t want to move around in the dark. He had found a toad or two by accidentally slithering into them and found a place to stay under an overhanging rock. This sheltered him from weather and the hot sun. NoSee curled up and slept dreaming of all of the slugs, earthworms, lizards and rodents he would eat the next day.

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When his eyelids lightened up, he knew it was day. Hunger overcame him so he slithered around but he didn’t bump into anything. When he did, the only way he could tell what it was, was if he stretched out around the object until he got an idea of how big it was. Sometimes it was another reptile or an object like a large stone or big lizard who snapped at him. NoSee did not like that! He missed his family.

One day he stumbled onto the scent of another garter snake and followed it. All of a sudden another garter snake jumped him and they started to tangle. NoSee didn’t know what to do. He sometimes used to play with his brothers and sisters by tangling with them. This was different this snake was bigger than him and was getting the best of him. Then the fighting suddenly stopped and the intruder slithered off.

“Hello, Whitey,” the intruder said to him. “I’ve never seen a white garter snake before.”

NoSee followed with, “I’m blind also. That’s why I’m called NoSee.”

“Well, what do you know,” hissed the other snake. “An albino snake that’s blind. How do you find food and a place to stay?”

“It’s very difficult to say the least,” was the reply.

“You poor snake,” murmured the intruder.

Will this mysterious snake help NoSee?