From Jason: I arrived in the late evening to a call to a parking lot in North Phoenix. On the sidewalk next to a busy street, I found an overturned bucket weighed down with a very heavy rock and an ominous sign taped to it. I was warned that a “very good sized snake” was waiting for me just beneath.

I prepared for something truly massive, but what I found was slightly less remarkable… a younger Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.

While the area itself is a concrete jungle, it’s full of lush, dense landscaping that provides plenty of places for a now street-smart snake to spend its first winter.

I was able to find a packrat nest in what remains of the nearby native desert, and because of the caring individuals who made the call, this snake just might one day become “a good size.”