Turns out that Sosie, formerly a Sagittarius, is now an Ophiuchus (pronounced Ooh-FEE-yew-kus). If you've never heard of the sign of the Ophiuchus, you should know that the Babylonians, wanting a nice even-numbered zodiac, tossed out the 13th sign long ago.
It has been revived, however, by Sosie and others who have an appreciation for astrological accuracy and things that crawl on their bellies. Sosie has researched her new sign and has learned that, among other things, she's a born "snake handler."
Today, by U.S. Mail, we received our "Easy Field Guide to Common Snakes of Arizona," with illustrations. It came from the newly-minted snake handler in California, who is obviously thrilled, if not overcome, by her new-found authority. She's just trying to help, we suppose.We've wintered in Arizona for five years. Seen a lot of varmints and roadkill: rabbits, skunks, opossum, road runners, javelina, deer, porcupine, fox, coyotes, wolves --- but nary a snake. It's too cold, the locals tell the snowbirds. That's just fine with us.
Before we stayed there in 2006, we had read that there were an average of 5,000 calls to the city of Tucson each year to deal with rattlesnakes, prompting some anxiety and the photograph and caption below.
