As a child, I used to spend my days catching crayfish in the creek and collecting grasshoppers in my bug box. Turning over rocks in the garden to look for snakes was one of my favorite past times (closely followed by showing the snakes to my mother and asking if I could keep them). I was never shy about playing with creepy-crawlies, and I could identify most of my local species with ease, but I found there were a few things I had yet to learn when I moved to Florida.

Back in 2007, I started my second Disney College Program Internship at Walt Disney World in Florida. My first time doing the College Program was during the fall of 2006, so when I found out that I could extend my internship and spend another semester in The Place Where Dreams Come True, I was ecstatic. Having already done Quick Service Food and Beverage, I was eager to try my hand at something else - something I knew I was good at from my pre-Disney work history.

So, naturally, I took the test, got re-certified and applied to be a lifeguard. In January.

In defense of my ill-timed decision, I assumed that Florida's temperate climate never dipped below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, no matter what time of year it was. I may have been a bit off in my figuring, but on days when my cozy winter parka was the only real protection against chilly mornings, at least the water was still nice and warm. Fun fact: I wasn't the only critter who felt this way.

Blizzard Beach became my new home and I loved it. With so many posts for a lifeguard to rotate between, the schedule never got boring. While I loved keeping siblings from drowning each other in the many kid-areas, helped many a guest disembark from tube slides and sharpened my skills at the wave pool, my favorite spots to watch were the quiet stretches along the lazy river where I could enjoy the lush beauty of winter in Florida. It was just me, my trusty whistle... and the snakes.

I had never seen a ringneck snake before moving to Florida, but in doing my research I learned that they were not harmful. They sort of reminded me of baby garter snakes from back home, just much smaller and with none of the aggression. They weren't too fond of chilly mornings either, and any time I would see one trying to take a dip, I would scoop him up discreetly, so as not to cause a panic. After all, nobody wants snakes in their lazy river, am I right?

As it turned out, I wasn't the only person who had never seen such an adorable ring-necked reptile. One day, as I was scooping up a tiny escapee, chiding him for trying to take an unauthorized dip, an Englishman and his young daughter were floating by in an inner tube. She spotted the tiny creature in my hand and was quite curious about it.

"Daddy, what's that?" she asked, sounding very much like Veruca Salt.

"It's a snake, sweetheart," her father replied, sounding very much like Stephen Fry.

"No it isn't!" the girl insisted, turning up her nose. "Looks more like a worm."

Always the ambassador of education, I knelt back down and held out my hand, the snake still entwined around my fingers. "It is a snake, see?"

With perfect timing, the tiny creature flicked its tongue at her. She shivered and clung to her father.

"Oh, daddy! 'Tis a snake!" she said as her father gave me a smile. Apparently, he was just as amused as I was.

That wasn't my only encounter with snakes on the lazy river, though, and sadly, the snakes in the other story weren't nearly as docile...

(TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2!)