another snake in the house (encore)

I was upstairs yesterday and noticed Betsy intently watching a box. Thinking she had cornered a rodent, I moved the box for her to kill the furry creature. Next thing Evelyne hears is a blood curdling scream from upstairs as I see and hear the ugly, hissing, slithering thing in the corner. Outside these things don't bother me that much; live and let live as long as they aren't eating eggs or bothering my animals or plants. Inside is a whole 'nother story. She yelled upstairs, "Mouse, Rat or Snake?" When the reply was silence I heard her say, "Must be a snake." I am usually the calm one around snakes and she is the wreck. Not so this time. I was so startled by it I'm surprised I didn't become an organ donor (except for the heart which had stopped cold). So the circus begins: What to do with this thing? Neither of us was going to touch it. She got some tools to slice it with, but her aim isn't all that good when she has all that adrenaline flowing. We ended up getting a plastic storage container and putting it over it. Then we shoved a piece of plywood under the container. The snake didn't agree with any of this and wriggled out once, but this time Evelyne was quick with the hoe and we got it successfully in the container with the plywood under it. Now to turn the container over...SURPRISE! It worked. Then we put a snap on lid on the container and took it outside, setting it in the sun hoping the heat would cook it and then we could deal with the body.

Evelyne and Rick are getting a new roof put on their house (looks nice) and the workers were all interested in this snake. None interested enough to take it away. They ask what we were going to do with it and she said "cook it." Their eyes got big and they stared at her. She then explained we were leaving it in the box in the sun and hoping it would cook in there and die. It didn't die in the box. So the next morning Evelyne and Rick took it across the highway to turn it loose to get rodents over there. Instead of slithering away down the hill, it turned and started back toward Rick. Final mistake. Whomp, whomp, whomp, whomp with a shovel, and maybe even a couple more whomps to be sure and that was that. Stupid thing should never have come into my house.

Evelyne asked me if I was ready to move back to the city after these incidents. I said "No. I would much rather deal with these snakes than the kind of snakes who were Dad's neighbors in Aurora."