Here in the Valley of the Sun, cities are expanding into the Sonoran Desert. And what do you think happens when people build homes in the desert? Well, you find snakes in the damnedest place, and people like Jeff and Rachael Almond have volunteered to rescue the snakes.
With Valley boundaries expanding to the hinterlands, humans and snakes are trying to cohabitate in the Sonoran Desert.
Jeff and Rachael Almond have stepped in to help. They rescue and relocate the reptiles to the desert because the agencies that usually do it are overwhelmed by calls.
"We were getting thousands of calls a year," says Ruthanne Gilbert, spokeswoman for Rural/Metro Fire Department. "If it's a threat to a family member or pet, we'll send a truck."
Otherwise, Rural/Metro calls the Almonds, who have formed a volunteer rescue group. Their Phoenix Herpetological Society has answered about 1,000 calls in Maricopa County this year.
"This is a feel-good thing," Jeff says. "People don't like snakes in their yard, but they know they're important in Arizona. They feel good, we feel good, because we relocate the snakes back in the desert where they belong."
And I thought that dealing with the copperheads and water mocassins back home was bad enough....
