Snake Trap
Whenever I am facing the doldrums, I find that God comes along and throws some force of nature in my face to bring me out of my self pity state and say “wow, that is too cool!” The other day it came in the form of snakes (yes, that was a plural, not a typo). The kids and I were out in the back yard playing and making more noise that anyone else in our little quiet suburban neighborhood, when I spotted a snake slithering up out of the retention pond behind our house. I pulled the alarm.
“Snake!” I pointed at the black creature slithering forward towards us. It stopped for a second and raised it’s head up like a cobra without the hood. I picked up a couple of stones and chucked them at the snake, thinking it would turn and flee. Instead it came at me. I grabbed to kids and hustled them inside the house.
Now I had been raised with the logic that wild creatures do not want to tangle with humans and if you make enough noise/trouble they will run away. I can’t remember the person who actually gave that advice, but it has been proven wrong over and over again, from snakes to gators and beyond.
We watched out the window as the snake slithered up into a bush with the ease of a gymnast, the it stuck it’s head out, hanging in midair. Now I had been reading the kids the book “Snake Camp” by George Edward Stanley (Random House)where a boy who thinks he’s off to computer camp, ends up at snake camp and ends up befriending a local garden snake. It’s a great book, the kids love it and it put some really bad ideas into MY head, for seeing that snake hanging out of the bush, I thought, I wonder if I could befriend it…yeah, really stupid!
So out I went in the yard with the kids at my tail. I threw out some slices of reduced fat turkey luncheon meat (the dog ate them, did not even notice the snake and wandered off in oblivion). I started towards the snake, he was still hanging out there and I know this is what that Garden of Eden scene with the snake and Eve must have looked like. I was thinking, he doesn’t look bad (Yes I was actually thinking about touching it!-Me the fraidy cat who hates snakes!). I stepped closer, then out of the back corner of my eye I saw our dog jump into the air and pounce on something- another snake had come around the backside of us!
Gone went the courage, I shrieked and dragged the kids back inside, leaving the dog to battle it out. The snake (harmless Indigo) did not bite her and she got away, as did both of our slithering friends. Thinking back, I suppose the two snakes were not trying to trap us but trying to mate and we got in their way…but it sure made one heck of a story for my son to tell his kindergarten friends!