There’s a Snake in My Boot!
… well, clinging to the end of it, anyway.
I’m glad I put on my Wellies last night before I went out to trim the hedges. It felt kind of silly — whoever heard of trimming hedges being particularly dangerous in a suburb? But it’s been raining a lot, and I didn’t want to put on my gardening tennies because they were all grubby and I didn’t feel like getting my hands dirty.
I went down the long line of privet (eck!) and cut everything as close to the ground as possible. I had the kids haul the brush to the kerb. Then I got my leaf rake and started raking out the leaves that had collected since last fall. Usually I just scrape this stuff up with my hands, but Providence was looking out for me, giving me a complete aversion to getting my hands dirty last night. Good thing, too.
Just as I was arguing with the children about them needing to pick up the leaves and add them to the rubbish heap, I glanced down to see where I needed to put my rake for the next sweep. A dirty great snake was all coiled up, ready to take a bite out of whatever came closest. I swallowed a scream so hard there’s still a lump in my chest, and told the kids to back away and leave the leaves where they were. Then I lifted the blighter up out of the leaves with the rake and set him on the neighbour’s driveway.
He was about a foot long, and all speckled. I don’t think he was poisonous, but I wasn’t taking chances. My sons went to get the neighbour boy to see the snake, and his mom came out, too. We watched it for a while, and then I put it in the street. (Have I mentioned that I don’t like snakes?) Four cars came whizzing past, all of them missing the critter by at least an inch or two. Finally, the neighbour’s ex drove up to drop off the baby, and he picked it up on a stick and took it down the street to someone else’s bushes.
So, I’m glad I put on my Wellies. And I hope there’s no more nasty surprises in them bushes.