Those lizards and the little green grass snakes were the two best wild animals to handle. They were chill if you were gentle with them and they would just crawl or slither around my hands and arms.

I caught a tiny, earth worm sized grass snake once and brought it into the house when my grandmother was visiting. I showed it to her. She went ballistic on my Mom for not teaching me to stay away from snakes because of the poisonous ones. I knew all of the poisonous ones that I needed to stay away from. There were only 4 where I lived: diamond back rattle snake, water moccasin, copper head, and coral snake. I could touch anything else. It was only the bright green grass snakes that I picked up because they were so chill.