To be fair, cats typically can't see that well. They can only see some color and they do have trouble seeing object that isn't moving so when they see cucumbers, it kinds of resembles snakes and that spooks them.
One of my cat just eats em, she hasn't been outside since she was oh about 10 weeks old and probably hasn't seen any snake. The other 2 gets their hair up and make angry noise as they back off. No crazy jumps though. I guess snakes in Michigan aren't dangerous enough to cats, just scary hiss.