Sunday, June 22, 2014

Slow ride

Our friend was back today. I knew he would be. He slips in every few days, to grab an egg or two and then slithers back under the shed. Check the chicken pen several times a day had been the routine.
Jilda made a peach and blueberry cobbler just after lunch for our dinner guest this evening. When I walked out to toss the peach peelings into the chicken pen, he was there with an egg in his mouth.
I quietly stepped back out of sight and went back inside for my long-sleeve coat and my gloves.
There's an old bread box in the shed where I'd stored old tools that I knew would be a perfect snack carrier. Emptying the box in another toolbox, I slipped into the chicken pen.
 While he was dining, I grabbed him in the middle. Jilda came out to watch from a distance and when I came out of the nest with this snake that was longer than I am tall she hollered "Be careful."
As I stepped backward with the snake in hand, my leg got tangled with the bottom of the roost and I went sprawling. When I landed, the snake was partially beneath me. I almost had a hygiene emergency, but I was on my feet quicker than a cat. Still holding the snake, I flung it into the bread box and flipped the lid closed. I could hear that rascal writhing in the box.
He was not happy, but that bad boy was about to take a slow ride to the county line.
I found a wide place in the road and pulled to the side.
Hefting the box from the back of the truck, I laid it on its side and opened it a little.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, and waited for him to make his exit. I thought I'd take one of him exiting and then get a full-length picture of him, but he was camera shy. A split second after this photo, he was out the other side of the box and in the underbrush before I could take another photo.
Hopefully when I introduce the new chicks into the big pen, there won't be any unwanted guests until they get big enough to fend for themselves.



5 comments:

  1. You definitely handled it differently than I would have. But I admire the grabbing guts. I will grab one in the early spring when they are slower than I, but not in this warm weather, THEM DUDES IS FAST in this weather...
    Good going..

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  2. Wow, you are a regular Indiana Jones. My hat's off to you. I wonder if you could get a snake grabbing tool somewhere. So glad you caught him.
    This is a good storey and I love that you used a bread box to carry it. Not such a happy ending for the snake as his lunch won't be so handy anymore.
    JB

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  3. Oh my!! so much excitement!! I wish I was there to see it.lol
    It is amazing how fast they can go without legs.
    Great job Rick!!! Well done!

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  4. Glad you rid yourself and your chicken coop of that snake! Sounds like it was a bit touch and go for a while there..glad it worked out the way it did! Don't they have traps for snakes that might be a bit safer to use? Sounds risky the way you did it.

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  5. I once captured a swamp snake to prove to my brothers I was tough enough to tag along with them. Carried it around by the tail to impress my sisters. I had no idea if it was friendly or venomous, but I made a pet of it. We lived in the Pacific Northwest, so chances are it was safe, but when it escaped from the makeshift terrarium I made for it in the back yard, the neighbor kids, newly arrived from the South, crushed it with a rock. I pretended to be upset, but was secretly glad to be rid of the pretense.

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