Okay, this is just nutty... so I released him yesterday honestly not sure if he was going to make it cause he still wasn't acting right for a water snake, not from what I've been told here. Anyway, well so today, my stepson is out mowing the grass and he comes inside and tells me that the snake is out in the yard, he almost hit him with the mower and that apparently he was moving quite well to avoid the mower. I go outside to see about coaxing him back into the swampy woods area and he just let me pet him! Whoa. So I just can't figure this snake out, if he's old, sick, what? He does still have a piece of shed stuck to the left side of his head covering his eye but the rest came off whenever I left him overnight with a little water in the container. I'm honestly surprised that he is still alive, it was 39 degrees when I went to bed last night! I wanted to get that piece of skin off him but even though he's never shown any aggression towards me, doesn't mean he won't bite me if I try to mess with his head, heh, I'm not brave enough! Any thoughts anyone, with what is up with this water snake? He lets me pet him and has never once shown any aggressive behavior? Isn't that weird? I probably could have picked him up again, he doesn't seem to be afraid of me at all. He sure was of the mower though!