Cotton Mouth

I didn't mean THIS was a water snake, but hopefully what she played with in the past were!

No, none of the Nerodia have that dark eye stripe.

Or a water snake... cottonmouths are one of the few snakes that really give me pause

I hope you played with actual black racers and not cottonmouths!

WOW! I had know idea. I played with these snakes all the time as a child. Scary.

Way too short and fat to be a racer. I really hope you didn't go mess with this snake since you thought it was harmless, since it is not. That dark eye stripe along with the fat body gives this away as a Cottonmouth.