Long, Slow Burn

Today is an “off” day.  I’m working but I’m taking care of a bunch of tasks that need taken care of  but are pushed off when getting a software project out the door.

I’m heading back to my office from checking in on some details about our upcoming vacation, and the phone rings.  It’s Janice from down the street.  She’s got a snake in her garage and her son needs to know how to get it out the door, or how best to separate its head from its body.

Stop.  Stop right there.  I’m a snake lover.  I find them fascinating, beneficial, and yes, beautiful.

I tell her to have her son get a broom and just sweep it outside.  If Plan A won’t work for them to give me a call and I’ll come over for the snake and release it in my yard.  Yes, my yard.  From the sound of it, it sounded like either a Black Racer or a Rat Snake.  Both of these snakes are non-poisonous and relatively harmless.  I get the call a couple of minutes later asking if I could come over.

I got a pillow case and a short wooden stick and rushed over before they got the hoe out.  There it was in the corner.  A beautiful Rat Snake at about three feet long.  I put the pillow case down next to it and hoped that it would crawl in for safety.  No such luck.  With a little prodding from the stick, it made a run for it.  I pinched it down with the stick and attempted to grab it with my gloved hand.  It struck out at my hand but the fangs didn’t pierce the leather, and I was able to get a hold of it.  The son handed me the pillow case and the snake was relieved to have a quiet place to re-gather some strength.  Two minutes worth of work.
I tried to inform the son what a great benefit snakes are to have around but I don’t really think it sunk in.  I asked him to call me the next time they had a snake in their garage, as opposed to the alternative.

While walking back to my house, snake in pillow-case, another neighbor was heading to her mailbox.  She asked what I had in the pillow-case and I told her that it was a snake.  She informed me that I could stop right where I was as she wasn’t a fan of snakes.  I told her what I told the son, that snakes are great to have around and … I don’t think it sunk in.  Her husband loves snakes.  She doesn’t.

Back at my house, I called my kids and wife outside for the releasing of the snake.  My dog Gala was there too.  We went to the woods on the side of the house, released the snake and it made a quick get away to a brush pile.   “Welcome to the neighborhood!”

I like snakes.  They’re always welcome at my house.  (Unless they’re poisonous which most of Georgia snakes are not.)