Uninvited Guest

On top of an already fun and very busy weekend, we had a little real excitement at the ol homestead yesterday evening.

The kids were sitting out on our little porch chatting with a friend on a bench we have near our front window. Very casually, the friend says, "hey, check out that snake...," and points to spot right under the front window. They glanced over and flew into the house to get me.

A.J. - Mom! Come check out the snake.

Me - The what?

A.J. - The SNAKE!

Me - Where?

A.J.- Right under our front window.

Me - Seriously?

A.J. - MOM - COME SEE THE SNAKE!

Me- I'm coming... (I grab my camera and head out front expecting to see a skinny little garden snake a foot or so long.) HOLY CRAP! GO GET DAD!

A.J. & Pickle holler in unison - DAD, come check out the snake! (that was their idea of "getting" Dad)

Hubby - I HATE snakes! What'd we got?

Me- You're really gonna hate this big thing!

Hubby takes one look, and is not happy....he really, really hates snakes. This one was a nice, fat snake, between 4 and 5 feet long, curled up unassumingly at the base of some plants we have. He wanted to be left alone. I don't blame him, but we couldn't just leave him there. Not with our front door a mere 5 feet away, and the dogs and the kids coming and going....nope, he'd have to go. We sent the kids to grab a neighbor friend of ours for a little help. Help to do what? We didn't quite know yet...

Not quite being sure what to do with our little guest, I picked up the phone, and called the police (the non emergency line) who gave me a number for an animal agency that can help with these types of issues. A pleasant woman named Tiffany answered the phone and had me describe what color our friend was, the design on his back, the size of his head. We were able to determine that it was NOT a rattle snake, which are quite common in this area, especially at this time of year. She told me that more than likely it was a gopher snake or a king snake. Either way, it wasn't venomous, and there was no reason to kill it, or even mess with it.

HELLO! Didn't she realize that it was right by my front door? Easily within slithering distance, into my home, down the hallway, and under my bed? No, our little friend had to be relocated.

Hubby and his buddy grabbed an empty trash can, a shovel, and a long piece of PVC pipe. Within just a couple of minutes they were able to wrangle our slippery little friend into the trash can, and close the lid down tightly. We all hopped into our buddy's truck, and headed to a nearby canyon area, where we figured out little friend had come visiting from. The whole lot of us, and by this time there were about 8 or 9 of us, got out, and walked about 50 yards onto the edge of the canyon, with Hubby carrying the trashcan...

Off came the lid. Snap a quick picture, and give the trash can a tip. Our little agitated friend didn't take any time at all to make his way out, hissing all the while, and headed off towards the canyon.

We felt pretty good about not having harmed our uninvited guest. Hopefully it will send a little good karma our way. We could use it, that's for sure!

Goodbye my little slithering friend, and please don't come back.