>In Africa, most of the storks ate snakes; including really deadly ones. They would stomp them to death.

my pet goose does this as well with anything remotely snake-shaped.

She's used to it now, but she used to do the same hopping-dance every time she'd encounter a garden hose.

hop hop hop with her wings out to appear bigger while quickly snapping at the 'victim' with her beak and then darting to caution with her head while keeping her distance from it otherwise and continuing the stomp dance.

must just be a bird thing (the dance, not the anti-snake behavior), I have my doubts that her soft webbed-feet would do anything but perhaps scare an actual snake.

Our cat, who had never seen a real snake, was hunting "snakes" - my hand in cobra position or rubber/plastic toy snakes - in very distinctive "mongoose" like style - cautiously moving around and ultimately making a lighning fast jump just a bit from a side and biting the "snake" right below the "head". When it were a "standing cobra" - my hand wrapped in several layers of cloth for protection - the bite would be right below the palm, a very strong bite with the cat simultaneously wrestling my hand to the ground using his whole body.

I don't think there are any poisonous cucumbers in the us, his cat should be fine.

Some common foods like grapes are poisonous to cats (for unknown reasons), there might be some tube-shaped vegetables too.

Has anyone worked out how cats react to vampire watermelons?

I dunno. When I was a kid, they would freak me out...