EEK! August 14, 2008

Today we found a snake!

Actually W found it. He was mowing the lawn and suddenly rushed into the house saying “There’s a snake in the dog pen!!” and calling the dogs back in.

Now we live in Maine so *snake* usually means *garter snake* which equals *harmless*, but W does not like snakes and tends to be a bit paraniod. I asked him where it was and he repeated that it was in the dog pen. Dog pen is about 8′ X 16′ so that doesn’t really tell me anything. I finally got a location out of him and headed out to catch it. W has a forked stick, but I’m like “it’s a garter snake, I don’t need a stick!”. I was known to be quite a snake catcher in my youth and I never once used a stick, thank you very much! I caught it pretty quickly and brought it inside for the kids to see. We put it in a small cage to observe since it was quite upset and ornery.  I almost got bit and he musked me pretty badly, yeck!

Here are a few pictures of Nagina (don’t ask me, the kids named him..er her)

We’ll let it go as soon as the lawn is mowed.  W said he saw another bigger one in the garden, it seems we have quite a population out there! Might explain all the holes.  Between the snakes and the chipmunks my lawn is  like swiss cheese  :^P~~~~~~~~~~