Some animals get a bum rap: Dirty as a pig in spite of the fact that pigs allowed to roam for their food are pretty tidy critters; stubborn as an ox and birdbrain, are just a few pejoratives we use, referring to animals. But the animal who has the absolutely worst reputation is living in droves in our backyard snakes. Cold, slithery, dark, striped, smooth and plain, all the same, reptiles.

The Adam and Eve story as told in Bible school pins the blame on the snake for luring Eve with this line: Here, check out this applereally tasty! So Eve suggests to Adam that he take a bite, and like all guys with a healthy dose of testosterone, hell do anything for her. They eat the apple and invent agriculture. One interpretation is that this was the switch from hunting and gathering to farming, and the poor snake was blamed for the whole deal.

The snake has continued to be reviled (at least in Judeo-Christian tradition) as a messenger from you-know-who from down below in fact, from well below the soil, down in the metamorphic center of the earth. (Leading me to a brief speculation that volcanic eruptions must have been the experiential basis for early Jews and Christians visions of hell. When the volcanoes in the Mediterranean region let er rip, when smoke, ash and maybe some lava came pouring out, the locals probably figured the world beneath the surface must be hell.)

But back to the snake as archetypical symbol of evil, as in Eek! A snake, the required response from females below a certain age. Boys are allowed to mess with snakes, and so are naturalists of any gender. Snakes, however, have never fazed me. Garter snakes abound in the Coast Range and I remember picking up two-foot-long snakes as a kid. Theyd wriggle; Id take a good look and put them down. I didnt know how to pick them up and frighten them less.

Now I make an effort not to frighten them at all. Snakes have become my gardening allies. Strawberries, young lettuces, broccoli and peas are tasty delights that attract my chief garden adversary, slugs but we have no slugs despite no slug bait or poison. Instead, we have a snake hotel.

Id read that providing snake habitat with a few wooden planks would attract snakes, but it didnt work for me. Then, several years ago, we began to pile up lawn clippings near the garden, just outside the eight-foot-high fence, the deterrent to our other big garden predator, the four-legged type with big brown eyes and ears that swivel in all directions. Knowing it would eventually compost, we covered the grass with a tarp to keep the heat in and prevent anything from growing. Well things did grow: snakes, several varieties, plus a lizard or two.

Each year, we have more snakes and fewer slugs. Each time we pull back the tarp to add more clippings, a dozen snakes race out. Or, if the weather is cool, theyll stay put in their nests. Yes, nests. When the grass is dry and fluffy, the snakes burrow down, creating a cup-shaped indentation five inches deep with a half dozen snakes in one nest. When theyre holed up, they dont want to move; if theyre merely lazing under the tarp, they race off and disappear in an eye blink into whatever tall grass is nearby.

The inverse relationship between snake and slug populations, as in more snakes, less slugs, is an empirical finding. Last year, I watched a fairly skinny 16-inch snake take 20 minutes to down a slug the size of my thumb. As I weeded, Id continue to sneak a peek to see how the process was going. The snake eyed me but was in a double bind: With a very large slug halfway down its throat, the snakes movements were awkward to say the least, so I tried not to frighten it.

Currently, there is one spectacular orange striped garter snake that has almost no fear of me at all. This gorgeous Red Spotted Garter snake, (Thamnophis sirtalis concinnus according to my friend Kathleen) is the largest and most calm of all the snakes. He (or she) suns on top of a patch of black landscape cloth and barely gives me a tongue flick. Perhaps this is an alpha snake or maybe this is the snake whom, in its youth, I watched consuming a slug and pronounced, Yes, it is good.

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Victoria Stoppiello is a freelance writer who has been poking around in the woods and fields of the lower Columbia region for most of her life. You can reach her at anthonyvictoria1@gmail.com.