Snake in a Box

If you love snakes, this post is not for you.  Please don't tell me I'm mean or I did the wrong thing.  When I know better, I'll do better.  I'll learn to make a snake-trap, but yesterday, I didn't have one. : )

I (yes, 'fraidy-cat ME!) killed a snake.  I will not tell you I did it bravely-I was *FREAKING* out the entire time.

Here's what Mary Claire spied out the window:

Mmm..these bricks are w-a-r-m.

His little weasel head watching me, before he got Mad and began sticking his tongue out at me!

Can you tell I ran and got my camera?  I just had to document this, as I couldn't believe it was happening.  I am petrified of snakes-they are my bad dreams.  I've even postponed writing this post, since the pictures gross me out!

So, I panic in the most girly way.  I call my husband who is taking Clay to his baseball game, and we are supposed to meet him there in under 30 minutes since he had Ethan (the bleacher-climber) with him.

This nasty snake is fast-moving.  He climbs around the corner of the brick, loops around an iron chair on the deck, all along my flowers and window, then back onto brick.  Who knows where he was headed?  I ran and got a flat-tipped shovel (the quintessential snake killer, IMHO) (good for banging, stabbing, flinging, etc.).  This is where the pictures dwindle, as I was on High Alert, Panicking, trying to figure out When to get him, How, and muster the Courage.  I swear this is the most crazed I've been (and I had a baby ripped out of me-fourth degree rip-no epidural..Crazy and Me?  We're friends.).

So this is where the rubber meets the road.  He's getting near my back door, where Mary Claire is on the phone with her daddy (I'm on the phone with my mom telling me I can DO this!).  When he dropped down where I could get his neck against the brick, I stabbed behind his head against the wall.  Odd angles and his skeleton kept him alive.  He dropped to the deck, slithering and hissing.  I slammed the shovel straight down on the same spot on his neck (isn't it all neck?), and had to hold the shovel on his neck for the longest time (I bet 5-6 minutes, but it felt like eternity!).  I could hardly feel my hands and feet by that time-they were tingly and numb.  All the blood had gone to my scared pumping heart I guess?

He kept slithering his back half around, and I waited till he'd quit moving, then I had Mary Claire get some bricks, and we set two on top of him right behind the cut mark:

And then, I went inside to get a drink. I couldn't even think straight.  If I'd been thinking straighter, I would have had a Good Drink (including alcohol), but I just had Coke.  After all my tea, Coke sounded stiff.  (ha!)


I sat and chilled out for a few minutes, then peeked out the window-he was gone!  I ran out, and saw him on the other side of the bricks. With his head barely attached, the dude pulled his body out from under those bricks!  He didn't get far, and was already crawling with ants (I know...gross!).  He was still alive (as in not dead, but not getting away), and can I say it was awful, just one more time?

I guess he tried to hide his body along the brick?

Finally Dead.

So, after I calmed down, I went to the ballpark, and by then Ethan was crying-he'd cut his knee, and a dog licked it, and he was freaking out.  Lucky me got to go back home to the snake. : P


Last night, a friend and her son came by to see Snake.  Luke couldn't wait, and had to see it.  They were super brave, and used some sticks to pry his mouth open (and got them caught on the fangs), and identified him as a water moccasin (also known as a cotton-mouth) (..also known as poisonous!).  He had a white mouth, white underbelly, and fangs.  He was not a baby since they have coloring similar to copperheads.  Mature snake + My house = Not Good.  They live near water and eat fish (I don't have any!), and I sure as heck don't want him feeding on the things in the water, i.e. the kids!!

I was super generous, and packed up the snake in a Glad disposable box for them to take home (okay, actually his mom put it in there-I was still grossing out!). : )  Luke wanted to show his friend, and maybe use him for beebee practice.  I love kids, and just want to do my duty helping them out with their gun practice.


We are currently snake-less (as far as I know), and I want to keep it that way.  Someone on FB told me she made snake traps, so that is my next project.  I'll show you when I get a lesson! : )