Walking with Rabbits and Snakes

I'm becoming a snake protector. Snakes spook me, but I'm seeing many on my walks these days and so I'm adjusting. The heat brings them out to bask on the hot tarmac. They're slow to move, which I appreciate. Darting snakes I haven't seen make me reach to be sure I've got my cellphone to dial 911 when my heart suddenly hammers. Yesterday I guarded two, who may or may not have gotten out of the way of bikers zipping along. I told one "baby, you got to go." And I had to scuttle forward to make the snake slither into the grass. The rabbits I've encountered are young, and stay to watch me until I'm too close for comfort. One baby just stayed put watching me walk past. I said at writers' group I'd have to look up snakes and rabbits again in my Animal Speak book, but we all remembered snakes are rebirth and rabbits are abundance. And I know what the two ants in my hair meant: don't brush your head against dangling tree branches.