Related to the above: today, several students brought me a
Rough Green Snake.
So what? You might be thinking.
Well, keep in mind that all of these students were female, and that we live in a region where pretty-much everyone -- but
especially women -- is expected to hate and fear snakes. Yet, when they found the snake outside their dorm, they managed to capture it (in a trash bag) and bring it to me. Why? Because they knew I'd be upset if they'd killed it. And they thought I'd like to see it.
And it turned out to be a win/win/win situation. I was in a lab at the time, so they brought the snake to the lab. It was a lovely, large female snake, and though several of the students were freaked out by it at first, I soon had them admiring it, and almost all of them were wanting to hold and "pet" it by the time the lab was over.
Afterwards, I took it around and showed it to several of the campus children, who were just as enthralled with it as the older students had been. Finally, I found a nice wooded area and released it back to the wild. All in all, an excellent day, if you ask me.