Thank you for your informed opinion Edward. Mom always warned me about hitchhikers. Although I have caught snappers out in the countryside, I had never heard of anyone finding a cottonmouth out away from water. Several years ago, I caught a snapper in my yard, got it into a milk crate and was going to take it to a creek and release it. I went in the house for a minute, when I came out it had climbed out of the milk crate and boogyed out of the yard. Of course, down where Mom lives it would have end up in somebody's skillet.