Out here in California,we have large variety of snakes.The most famous being the western diamondback rattlesnake.At one point in time they were almost wiped out.Locally we have a very rare snake nonvenomous thats about 12 inch long fully grown,with a red belly and beautiful reddish silver scales on the back.
One day up the coast at a friends ranch,came out early in morning to go hiking,seen a very large snake which I mistook for a diamondback at first,my host laughed when I pointed it out,they said dont worry its just a King snake looking for diamondbacks to eat,apparently they like eating the young ones.
I personally always have liked snakes,lizards etc,growing up here in Calif I came into contact with a lot of them.
I was training at 29 Palms back in the day, saw stuff I had never seen before, and the critters that came out at night as well.