Sssorry! I did not mean to ssstartle you. Please don’t run away. I was just over there on that cracked rock, sssunning myself. I have been watching you when you come out to play with your pets, and I thought to myself how I should introduce myself and maybe we could be friends.

Ahem, here I am, introducing myself to you. Thank you for not running away; it is hard being a sssnake. I am a harmless garden sssnake; I live over there, under that flower pot—please don’t take it away, or I will have to find a new home, and I am not sssure I can find a home as cozy as under that pot. I love to come out and sssunbathe when the sssun is ssshining, but I am a bit lonely. I can’t bite, and I don’t eat much. Do you think we can be friends?