Another Snake

David yelled, come and see this - I come running out of the greenhouse - and he's trying to get rake and hoe to the inside corner of the goose pen - another black snake only this one has Princess upset as she cannot get to her nesting corner. He's swallowed one of her eggs - she's not happy. He pens the snakes head - the bright red around the bulge of the egg threw him - black snakes don't have red on them - well, yeah, they do. Those scales were a bit fer apart with all the goose egg.

As he held on and lifted this 5 foot dude or dudette, he decided we had to carry this one off too. Box is in the top of the garage. He says as he stands near the door, come hold this. I grin and we both laugh - ah, no way and then I stroked the body - the huge bulge showing more color than you normally see. David spies the 5 gallon bucket, I run for a large pot that I figure will set right down and David throws the snake to the ground and immediately the snake has upchucked the egg. I could feel him upchucking, David explains. I guess he knows he cannot fight or run with that kind of load and he's not in the mood for lunch now - just plain scared. David drops him quickly into the bucket, I put the black pot down over the top - good tight fit. Off we jump into the car for a trip to the bottom of the hill. The snake in bucket is in my lap - I am not even shivering.

David had grabbed Princess's egg and returned it gently to her - funny how this hairy, wirey old man has such heart - I love him more every day for his gentleness. I've seen him twist a bad can opener into a knot when it would not work but with living things, he's pretty awesome most of the time.

Snake delivered to bottom of hill, David lifted the pot off and the snake was curled defensively - he leaned the bucket forward and out slithered our dude/dudette to chase mice and other snakes and probably the occasional egg - but not at our house - he'll find other sources and I keep hoping that the railroad tracks vibrate too much for his taste.

We both go back to our efforts of pulling plants out of a too hot greenhouse - so that they can survive our Oklahoma summer setttling them under shade on plastic with hopes that they survive our absence for a few days vacation. I just had to include the post from Tulsa Community Gardening as this built on the story of the fish eating snake - two is enough - for now.