Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Snake in the Grass!

More like snake in my house!!! UGH, I'm still all freaked out by it!
When Hubby got home this evening I left the Things in his care and went off to a prenatal visit with my new doula client. After that, I had a present for Jane so I stopped by her house to give it to her and then headed to Costco. From there I went to a smaller grocery store to pick up a few items that I either couldn't find at the warehouse store or I just don't need in bulk. Hubby called me on the way home and asked me to pick up something from Wendy's for him. After doing the gathering for my little tribe I headed home, anxious to put the food away, eat the side salad I got myself and go to bed. As I was turning on my street I got a call from another doula's client. She couldn't get a hold of her doula and she just needed to talk. She was 42 weeks yesterday and she is starting to worry that her body doesn't work properly. We talked a bit, I listened to her worries, told her to drink some tea, take a deep breath and rest up tonight (I really feel that she'll be in labor tonight or tomorrow). As we were chatting I pulled into my driveway and saw what looked like a snake but it didn't concern me because Thing 1 had been playing with his sister's toy snake earlier today. I figured he dropped it over the balcony and I would pick it up in the morning.
I finished my conversation, took some groceries in the house, kicked off my shoes and asked Hubby to help me finish bringing the stuff in. As we were making our second trip from the car to our house, he stopped in his tracks and said something like "Oh Sh*t, a snake!" At first it didn't dawn on me that he was looking in the direction of our front door and not in front of his car where I originally saw the "toy". I was about to laugh at him for being scared by a toy until I saw the snake slither it's way into our home.
Of course I screamed, not caring if I disturbed the neighbors. I ran back to the car, got in and shut the door. Knowing that Hubby is more afraid of snakes than I am, I wondered what he would do to get rid of the critter. I got back out of the car to check on his progress.
Original Thing and Thing 1 were sleeping but Thing 2 and GirlThing ran out to see what was going on. Hubby ordered them to get out of the house via the back door. The more obedient of the two, Girl Thing, ran outside crying because she couldn't understand why Hubby was yelling at her to get out. Thing 2 practically walked right into the snake as he walked closer and closer to Hubby, trying to figure out why he was at the front door, in his boxers, yelling with a golf club in his hand. Finally he looked down, saw the snake, started screaming and ran out the back door too.
I gathered the two of them up and we locked ourselves in the car, leaving Hubby to slay the dragon all on his own.
Poor guy, I didn't really know how much he hates snakes until I peeked out the window and saw him pounding and pounding the reptile into the ground. Finally, using two golf clubs and a floor scraper, he killed the snake and got it into a garbage bag. Once we had been given the all clear, the kids and I got out of the car. Hubby and I finished putting the groceries away and put the kids to bed.
Unfortunately, we are both too creeped out to sleep. I keep wondering what would have happened if he hadn't noticed the snake going into our house! Yikes!
I have lived in this state for 17 years and I've never seen a snake outside of a confined setting. I'm assuming it was someone's pet that wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time. I did a little research and I think it was a Desert Rosy Boa Snake
Hopefully when/if I sleep tonight I won't be dreaming about red reptiles. I think GirlThing is going to have to get rid of her toy. Every time I see it I will be reminded of how unsafe it is to unload groceries after dark.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ohmygosh, girl. What a story! Well, when we lived at Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright School) in Scottsdale, we were literally surrounded by rattlers. They lived in our laundry room - over a dozen of them at once! We had them "relocated" more than once. My hubby loves snakes and I actually don't mind them. But no one wants them in their house!
XOXO