Snakes and Elephants

—Not Necessarily All in Our Yard!

We saw our first snake of the year (actually, our only snake so far this year) in our yard back in April—a Kingsnake. Hubby & I are happy to see snakes in our yard because of their good work helping control local rodent populations. Kingsnakes also have the superpower of being highly resistant to Rattlesnake venom! Wow!

Here’s our Kingsnake friend in my Perpetual Journal.

Perpetual Journal, week of Apr. 2-8: Kingsnake (2026)

While I was contemplating how to tie together the two topics I’d chosen for today’s post—snakes and elephants—my mind recalled a historical piece of snake art: Benjamin Franklin’s Join, or Die woodcut from 1754. It’s one of the earliest political cartoons in American history and represents America as a snake severed into various provinces.

Join, or Die by Benjamin Franklin (from the U.S. Library of Congress; no known restrictions on publication)

With Independence Day here in the U.S. just two days away, and given the current political climate in the U.S., Franklin’s woodcut seems especially timely. It reminds me of the French saying plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same).

OK—enough about that! Let’s move on to elephants in Africa! 😀

🎬 FilmFlix

If you’re in the mood for something positive and uplifting (join the club!) I highly recommend this two-part Nature series that Hubby & I watched recently:

• Baby Steps | Becoming Elephant: The Orphans of Reteti

• Graduation Day | Becoming Elephant: The Orphans of Reteti

These two episodes chronicle the rescue, rehabilitation, and release work at Reteti, the first community-owned elephant sanctuary in Kenya. The caretakers at Reteti rescue elephants (and other animals) who have been injured or orphaned, nurse them back to health, and help them learn the skills they’ll need to be able to survive back in the wild when Reteti releases them.

Watching these episodes, I especially enjoyed witnessing the caretakers’ awareness of and attention to the elephants’ emotional states, especially those elephants who had been orphaned as youths or suffered physical challenges. And I have to say the baby elephants (and baby zebra, too!) are just the cutest things ever! 🥰

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"Don’t ask what will happen. Be what happens.”

- Rebecca Solnit

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