Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Elderberry

I looked up from my chair in the study. Ori was in the middle of the living room sitting possessively near a ribbon on the floor.  Uh-oh. This was bad. There are no ribbons in the house. Went over to check. Not a ribbon but a good sized garter snake. While I'm careful to check Ori before she comes back inside the house (vermin have to be eaten on the deck), I leave the door to the garage open in the summer so Indy can go out to her run whenever she likes. Based on a puncture mark on the back of the snake, Ori must have caught this snake in the garage and hauled it in for my "enjoyment". The snake had already figured out that if it didn't move the cat stopped bothering it. When I  tried to shoo the snake into a wastepaper basket though that was a different matter and it quickly darted for the couch. Ori headed it off. The snake reared up trying to bite but Ori was too fast. I considered my options. Something had to be done or Ori would eventually lose interest and I'd find the snake's desiccated body when turning the cushions. The proper way to catch a snake is grabbing it just behind the head but I'd seen that little thing strike out at Ori and was pretty sure I wouldn't be as quick as Ori was in evading it's fangs (yep, garter snakes have two sharp teeth in the back of their mouth). Herpetologists in old scary movies drape the snake's body over a stick. I'm building a kite so grabbed two framework sticks and tried to push one under the middle of the snake. The snake just wriggled off. I looked at the snake. This time I pushed the stick under the body much closer to the head. Better balanced this way the snake didn't move but hung quietly just raising it's head to see what was going to happen. I carried it on the stick out to the deck where it rather gracefully slid off the edge. Thank you, Svengoolie!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did not know that Ori was so energetic or quick, anymore. Could have been worse if that little snake got away.....and was pregnant.

cjb

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness! Snakes freak me out! Carolyn