Today I was working on my current writing project. I heard a crash in the kitchen.
Now. I knew the furry children were out of doors at the time, and had just heard the screen door close, indicating that Huey was also out of doors.
“No damn peace to work today,” I muttered as I trekked through the house to find out what all the malarkey was about.
Holy smokes! A six foot snake curled around my blue willow sugar and creamer pots, (apparently it liked those), and had knocked over the bread board and a free-standing wedding picture of us! That was the crash I’d heard.
Now, I like snakes, but I was not going to even attempt to get close to this one. At least not until I knew what we were dealing with.
First I imagined Huey had found his rubber, fake snake, which had hung in a bush outside our front door in Albuquerque, so I high-tail it to the door and call him.
“Did you put a fake snake in the kitchen to frit me?” I said.
“No, why?”
I drag him to said spot in the house, where he gasps, picks up the phone, and calls the local fire department. Asks them what to do, since we have never encountered this particular problem before. They tell him to find a pillowcase and try to catch it.
Well, excuse me, but sod that! I had no idea if it was poisonous or not at that time, and wasn’t going to risk Huey’s, mine, or the dogs health in that way. So Huey fetched a box. Opened one end and ushered the snake in from as much distance as possible.
The snake complied and Huey carried in said box outside, where it sidled under my Jeep and disappeared into the undercarriage. Huey drove the Jeep down to the bottom pasture to give the poor thing some peace and hopefully it will exit the vehicle and go to its own home.
He looked it up online when this was done and it was only a plain bellied water snake. Harmless, thankfully and shy.
How or why it decided it a good idea to come into our house I shall never truly know, but we think it came in via the shop. The back door had been open this morning, as Huey was doing some work out there. It must have sneaked in and entered the kitchen through the inner door (which had been left open).
I would have loved to get a photo of the event, but honestly I didn’t even think about it until later. So, dear reader, you will just have to use your imaginations for this one :)