Oh, My!

Okay before you read any further or look at the pictures I need to tell you something.....I never said I was a sane person...I've only ever claimed to be a "nature nut". I don't know where I get it from, I used to think I got it from my Grandmother *rest her sweet soul* but even I know she would kill........snakes.

This first picture is of my front yard pond, I didn't want to scare you off right away by showing things to my readers that don't like "certain" things in nature ;)....see my little bullfrog?? ;)

Now, those of you that do follow me and my nature trails, know that I have an egg eating snake problem. I've relocated the only one that I thought I had, across the road into a wooded area. Well....a few days ago I went to collect the eggs and found not one but two of them in a egg laying box! It was funny because I had been running *one* of them out daily for a while now, and when they saw me they tried to hide. As usual...when I don't have my camera on me things like this happen, so I wasn't able to capture the "Kodak moment". I ran in to grab my camera and when I got back one was under the box chamber and one still in the box.

We've been trying to catch them ever since so they can be relocated to the woods way away from here. I've also been checking the boxes more frequently trying to get the eggs before they do ;) So, this morning when I was out there something caught my eye and I totally had heart failure! When I calmed down and could see it was one of my egg eaters, I ran in to get my camera ;) I took the first photo then thought I'd try to see if I could catch it and start the relocation process. I got my snake stick and that's when I realized it was tangled up....really bad.

I ran in to get my favorite sharp little scissors to cut it free. I know....I know.....I thought I was crazy too, but sooner or later I would have to deal with removing it and I'd rather be able to save it than to wait for it to suffer this terrible slow death, knowing it was in my power all along to be able to free it.

People don't realize how important snakes are to our environment. I know they are fearful and intimidating.....geez I was shaking so bad I thought I would have to have a bottle of wine to calm my nerves ;) LOL Just kidding......but really I was a nervous wreck! I kept telling it if it bit me I would kill it LOL ;) I started clipping the netting away at the lower part so I could hold it's head to clip away that area last.....didn't want to take any chances...;)


You can see where it was cutting into it's skin. A snake is like an alligator in the way that when it gets tangled up in something it rolls and twist it's body, only to tangle worse. Once I got it free I put it in a cooler and brought it up to the yard....I want to make sure it's okay before I release it. It's head and jaws looked pretty messed up.
I put an egg in there to make sure it will be able to eat before I let it go. Once it saw the egg it went over to investigate and opened it's mouth. It looked like it was trying to make sure it still worked ;)
I'll keep you posted...if you are an interested "nature nut" as well....

Oh, for those of you that have listened to me about mothballs keeping snakes away......well, it doesn't work ;)

Until next time!

TTFN!

Julie