Just what I need a mongoose!
You DO. And in fact, they're quite good pets. Kipling's Riki-Tiki isn't an exaggeration at all.
My dad had one when he was in the AF, stationed in Japan in the late 50's. He actually came with his apartment--Lou had been a roommate to a long line of different non-coms who'd passed the apartment on as they were reassigned. Dad hadn't been there a month when Lou killed one a habu just outside the front door. Dad was VERY fond of him, and was really, really mad when he couldn't bring him home when he was discharged.
God knows I'd have loved to have a mongoose to take camping with us in rattlesnake country when I was a kid!
If you've had 2 snakes in the lake this close together, it sounds like you've got a nest of them somewhere. It might be worth finding a herpetologist to come out and survey the area and see if he'll take them away if he finds them!
Or you could just see how difficult it might be to get a mongoose, who will eat them up for you. (You could snuggle a mongoose.
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