Wednesday, April 1, 2015

APRIL FOOLS DAY. DID YOU PUT A RUBBER SNAKE ON THE STEPS? I DIDN'T.

SPRING AT LAST! LIFE IS STIRRING IN THE GARDEN.
This almost on April Fools' adventure started last week while it was still March.  One evening while I was sitting in the living room,  I noticed my Pom, Fuzzy jumping up and huffing around and acting like something was in the hallway.  He was on alert and came in wanting me to come with him.  He was sniffing the floor and acting scared like he does if there is a spider in the house.  I put shoes on my feet and carried another shoe in my hand and we went spider hunting.  We looked and looked and he sniffed and sniffed, and we never did find any spiders.  

I had forgotten all about the Fuzzy's phantom spider incident, but two or three nights later my husband went down in the basement.  I heard him coming back upstairs and saying,  "What is this?".  "What is this?", he said again. 

"What's what?", I asked from upstairs.

"Is this some kind of fooler?  It's not April Fool's day yet."  And then he asked, "Did you put a rubber snake on the steps?"

When he said that, I was visualizing one of those great big prank snakes--and I knew that I had not put any rubber snake on the steps and we are the only two people that live in this house. 

"No, I didn't put any rubber snake on the steps!!", by this time I was being loud.
Then I asked him if he was sure it wasn't moving.  He said "No, it's not moving". 

Then he stepped up and over the "rubber" snake and came up and got the foot-and-a- half long BBQ grill fork. (He couldn't find the tongs) and a plastic bag to put the rubbery dead snake into.

The snake was still in the same place on the steps.  He slipped the fork under the snake and started to lift it into the bag and suddenly the snake sprung to life and fell off of the fork and (very luckily) fell into a big empty five gallon paint bucket that was under the steps.  Had the snake not fallen into the bucket, it would have been loose in the basement.

We took the bucket o'snake out onto the front porch. It was 2:45 in the morning and I couldn't see well enough to tell what kind of snake it was.  I wanted to see it in the daylight, so I put it into a stapled closed brown grocery bag which we then put into the empty recyclable bin to keep the snake from freezing to death before morning.

Fuzzy could smell the snake in the bucket and was trailing along sniffing and huffing and carrying on.  I knew right then that is what he had been telling me about the night that he was acting like he had seen a super spider.  I think he saw the snake that night.  Why he didn't continue to tell me about a snake being in the house, I don't know. Maybe he thought it was going to be a new pet. The snake was only four steps down the stairs from the kitchen, which makes me think that it had gone under the kitchen/basement door and fell down those four steps.  The snake was too small to have been able to make it that far up the steps from the basement.  I don't know where or how the snake came into the house, but I think that it must have come in when the weather turned cold after being warm for a couple of days.

In the light of day, I could identify the snake as a little brown garter or garden snake. He/she had a cute little dark ring marking around the neck. It never tried to bite or strike at me and posed for several pictures.  I put the pencil in with Snakey so you could see exactly how little this snake was.
SO SMALL THAT HE/SHE IS RATHER CUTE
We finished with our photo op and I set Snakey free in the rocks by my zinnia bed.  From the information that I read, these little snakes like to eat slugs and are beneficial in the garden. 
SETTING SNAKEY FREE
I am not afraid of snakes if I know exactly what type they are, but I would not like the surprise of grabbing one up by mistake while pulling weeds.  Maybe I will start wearing garden gloves more often, even if they do make me hot.

LOOKS LIKE I MIGHT NEED TO PULL THAT WEEDY GRASS--OR NOT!


NOTE TO SELF--WEAR GARDENING GLOVES!
So, to wrap it up and put a bow on it and wish you a fun-filled April Fool's day, I will leave you with this image of a very different type of bow...

10 comments:

  1. OMG - I would still be running - I hate snakes and I am terrified of them. You are a pretty brave woman. I know Garden Snakes are good for the garden, but they still scare me. The little boy that I watch after school came in yesterday and put a plastic cockroach on the table. I walked by and looked and I knew right away that it wasn't real, but my friend was over and she was scared. It was one of those BIG water bugs ,,, he was a few days early for April Fools.

    Have a wonderful Easter.
    Mary

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  2. Ewwwww....Susie. I will make sure to send you any snakes that I find that want to pose for a photo-op. I don't like snakes- AT ALL. It comes from stepping on one with a bare foot when I was a kid---a BIG one....Still gives me the shivers. xo Diana

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  3. I do not like snakes of any kind. I probably would have fallen down the stairs when seeing it. Glad you got it outside hope he keeps the bugs away. Have a blessed day. Madeline

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  4. Oh Susie..I wish I weren't afraid of snakes..and it's not so much fear really, as just not knowing what to expect from them. They probably feel the same way about me. Of course I was raised around deadly ones for the most part..so that may be part of my problem. Little garden snakes are a good thing to have around they say..I would certainly never harm one.

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  5. Dearest Susie,
    What a story and yes, one wonders why our pets don't tell the entire story and point us to the intruder of the home.
    Good ending and I'm glad for that. Thanks for your visit.
    Sending you hugs and sunshine from Georgia,
    Mariette

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  6. I would be thrilled to find snakes in my garden ~ and yours is such a little sweetheart! Unfortunately, the Adder, or Viper, which is our primary UK snake is poisonous, so perhaps I don't really want them! Now, Grass Snakes, on the other hand ~~~ yes, please!
    Do you think the snake was in your home the whole time? Fuzzy was obviously on to something.
    I love a happy ending.
    ~~~Deb in Wales

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  7. My dear Susie Moon....:)
    Snakes are horrible...ANY kind...I hate 'em....:)
    Hope your Easter is blessed and happy

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  8. So glad you didn't kill it. I'm not bothered at all by snakes. Though we have many types of venomous snakes around here, I say live and let live. I have found snakeskins in the house and once had a long black snake slither in. It wasn't a venomous one though. Only in the last few years have I started killing the cotton mouth water moccasins that take up my gold fish pond as their home. They are very aggressive and I'm afraid they'll kill my little dogs or one of us. Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving your comment.

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  9. So cute! But yes, I would be wearing gloves! LOL! I hope you had a great Easter ;o) Hugs ;o)

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  10. Makes me shudder with memories. I was staying in a friends house in Kentucky on my own when I spied a snake in the living room. It had apparently been brought in a garden pot brought in for the winter. Fortunately I had a friend visiting from Ohio she knew just how to deal with it!!

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