Shane took this picture one night when getting home from work, he spotted this baby deer hiding by our window. The baby deer are so cute... I love seeing them around this time of year.
One of the things I love most about living in Morgan's Point is being able to be so up-close to wildlife. However, considering the experience I had yesterday... it is also one of the things I don't like about living here. This experience did NOT involve a loveable furry little creature. Rather, a 3 foot long slithering creature... that's right, it starts with an "S" ends with a "nake". It is the "S" word in our house because Shane is absolutely terrified of them, and it is for that reason that I won't post a picture of what the "S" looked like because I don't want to ruin the blog for Shane...
Anyway, I took the kids swimming and then had to run home and grab some Fedex packages to drop off. When I got out of the car, I told the kids to stay there while I ran in to get the packages, they were watching a movie, so they were totally content. Anyway, I went inside the garage... In the corner of my eye I saw something slither past.... I knew what I had just seen, but with a huge lump in my throat, I wished my eyes had deceived me. I went over to see where the thing went... and saw a little bit of the tail sticking out from under an umbrella..... Gulp.
I went inside and grabbed the packages...and a broom, trying to consider my options. Should I call Shane? .... obviously, not helpful in this particular situation... Harry Potter?... hmmm... now there's an idea! I tried to channel the courage of Annie Oakley, when that didn't work, I just decided I needed to suck it up and get rid of the evil little devil.
The hair on my arms, standing on end, I went back out and gingerly grabbed the top of the umbrella and slid it out of the garage- throwing it on the grass... no snake.
I went back in the garage and see that the floor mat is bulging. If I had my wits about me I would have just started smacking it with the shovel while it was nice and contained, instead I threw the doormat off and there it was... coiled up and tongue wiggling.... shivers...I grabbed the broom and took a swat at it. It opened up it's mouth and lunged... Okay, that was freaky! Heart pounding hard at this point.... It was moving fast, much faster than me ... and slid quickly behind another part of the door mat and over to hide by the shoes. I moved everything out of the way so I could have a clear shot... it tried to strike again. I swished it away from me with the broom but it came back towards me... it was ready to fight! At that point I knew the shovel was the only option. The broom just wasn't working. The bugger was too strong and fast, and... it was ticked off!
I won't tell you what happened next. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty, and I hated every last second of it. But the snake is in a better place. The boys only discovered what had happened when we got home later and they saw the garage in a huge mess. Looking somewhat like a crime scene.
I told them not to tell their dad about the incident or we will seriously have to move. I scrubbed the garage floor to remove the evidence.
When Shane got home later that night...Jackson says, "Dad, I am totally NOT going to tell you what mom found in the garage."
