Rattler

A week or so ago we came home from a morning out with friends. (We meaning the girls and I). For some strange reason (God. Thank you again.) I decided to jump out and take all of my things in the door before I began unbuckling and unloading the girls. Normally I will let them out as I gather the load that seems to follow us everywhere. As I approached the door I saw a snake coiled on the doorstep.

Readers, you should know before reading any further that I am terrified of snakes. Even a small garden snake can send me to a week of nightmares. I come by it honest as my Mother is the same.

Had the snake been a garden snake I would have been upset. Had the snake been a small snake I would have been upset. This snake was more. He was easily 20 inches long and thicker around than any snake I had EVER seen outside of a cage or an animal show. His coloring also indicated this was not a garden snake. He hissed his long tongue and I went screaming back to the car. I jumped in and locked the doors...as if snakes can unlock a door. I watched him closely as I called the hubs. No answer. I called the Y where he plays basketball...busy signal. I called a neighbor. No answer. Panic was setting in. Then suddenly my 80-something year old neighbor, Mr. Doolittle, came home. I carefully climbed over to the passenger side of the vehicle so the snake wouldn't see me get out and ran across the street....locking the girls in the car behind me. He grabbed a shovel and came back with me. By the time we got back, the snake was gone. Of course this means he is loose somewhere around our house. Mr. Doolittle helped get the girls in and we locked up and stayed in the house for the rest of the day.

Ever seen finding Nemo? Specifically this scene:


For the days that followed I would grab everything in my arms and hold Cupcake's hand while saying "we go out, we go in" "we go out, we go in"
Side note - Pixar is just genius because two days of that and Cupcake was just like Nemo. Sigh.

Flash forward a few more days....Cupcake and the hubs are taking out the trash when cupcake spots the snake again. Does she run? Does she scream? Does she ask to be picked up? No. She just calmly says there's the snake. Guess she's not inheriting my terror. The hubs brought her in and told her to play inside. I went and got Mr. Doolittle and then had to leave...I was headed out anyway. Thankfully Mr. Doolittle and the hubs were able to kill him. The hubs took a picture and after having a chance to look a little closer he was in fact no garden snake...he was a Rattle Snake. A venomous snake. Whew. The fun never ends around here.

At least he's dead. Hopefully his blood trail leaves a little messages for the other rattlers in the hood....you aren't welcome here!