I thought when my son moved out and went in the Navy that I was done with reptiles and other small creatures living in my house. We had them all; snakes, lizards, frogs, crawdads, fish, rats. I never knew what he was going to catch or bring home. As long as he cared for them and they didn't get out, I was fine with it.
I put my foot down when he caught the garter snake and tried to keep him in a cage in his room. The snake was just angry that he was inside and escaped twice. The second time he popped out of a drawer at me in my son's room. I screamed and slammed the drawer shut. I thought I beheaded it which made be feel really bad. But it turns out he was OK and I made my son take him out to the field and release him. Lesson learned: Don't keep angry snakes in the house.
Our current pets in our semi-empty nest, are Darryl and Honey. They are brother and sister, orange tabby cats and they are not even a year old yet. In previous posts I mentioned that Darryl was fond of catching sticks and had moved up to a "wigglin' stick." The wigglin' stick was a garter snake that he spit out at my husband's foot in the yard. He was very proud, but really didn't like the taste. Since then we have had several incidents with Darryl and his love of sticks.
Our first clue should have been all the sticks he started bringing in the house. We'd come home from work and there would be pieces of sticks everywhere. The great hunter! Then in a corner of the backyard there is a pile of sticks. This must be Darryl's lair where he gathers all of his sticks before distribution.
Darryl has a distinctive meow when he brings in one of his sticks. It's very deep and guttural and says, "Look at what a manly man cat I am. I have caught some more prey. Praise me, oh opener of cans." Of course, up to this point he has been bringing in inanimate sticks. But he is very proud. That all stopped about a week ago. He was by the fireplace and was making his "I've got a stick noise." My husband and I looked over and there it was. He had a live garter snake in the house and was playing with it. A real live wigglin' stick. My husband, being calm and not afraid of snakes like myself, reached down and picked it up. Darryl was not happy that his new play toy had been picked up. I shuddered and my husband tossed the snake in the tree outside our deck.
A few days later our college age daughter had just gotten home from school and was relaxing in the living room when she heard Darryl making a ruckus and meowing. So she got up to look and screamed. He had another snake in the house. She snapped a photo of him on her phone and called me screaming that there was a snake in the house. We determined that a broom and dust pan were the best way to extract the snake since the snake looked mostly dead at this point. So into the tree off the deck it went.
This weekend we found a much bigger and coiled up garter snake in front of the fireplace with my driftwood collection-yes more sticks. Darryl has concluded I collect sticks and he must bring more to me. My husband again calmly picked up the snake and tossed it into the tree outside the deck. All I can do is shudder. He thinks that if I just touch the snake it will help alleviate my fears. That's not the problem. I can touch the snake, I just don't want one touching me when I don't know it's there, like in my bed or shoe!
So I did mention to my husband I was a little unsure of all the snake tossing into the tree. His reasoning was that the cat wouldn't climb that tree and the snakes had a better chance of surviving. I'm just afraid that a passerby on the trail beneath the tree will end up with snakes dropping on them at some point. Or we'll have some biologist out here thinking they have a new rare species of tree dwelling California garter snakes. By the way I did do a little research on the snakes that Darryl is catching and they look like a very common variety. They are not some endangered species.
Life is kept fresh and new with little ones in the house!
Score:
Honey Girl-4 birds
Darryl-many sticks/4 snakes
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