Snake in the safe room has me packing my bags

Discussion

September 30, 2009

By Karen Middleton The News Courier Wed Sep 30, 2009, 02:50 PM CDT

I moved to the Elkmont Rural Village a year ago because I found a really neat house and because it is a beautiful area with lots of wildlife. I have waxed on in a quasi-poetic way in columns past about the flora and fauna, but when it comes to snakes I draw the line.

I’ve been especially wary since we ran a photo in mid-summer of some folks at the back of the Village who had killed a large rattler on their back deck. I make sure I keep my garage door closed.

I never thought about snakes invading my safe room, which is below my deck and the door of which leads from the backyard. I haven’t been very successful in growing grass in the backyard of my new home, so when the torrential rains of the past couple of weeks caused some erosion, mud and water washed underneath the door into the safe room.

I’ve used the safe room for storm purposes just twice, and it’s really pretty big, so I store my Christmas trimmings there. I had gone down to the safe room about three weeks ago to retrieve something when I saw my first snake. Just a baby, but I started wondering where his mother might be.

Saturday, I went back down to the safe room and there were two more swizzle stick-size baby snakes. One had drowned and the other I flicked out into the yard, but he was persistent about wanting to crawl back in so I had to be a little more persuasive.

I honestly don’t know how a pregnant snake could have crawled through the quarter-inch gap under the door; however, there is a ventilation pipe near the ceiling coming through from the crawl space. I just hate to start picking through all of those bags of Christmas trims, not knowing what’s lurking or what mood she’s likely to be in.

So, woman-to-woman, I let her know that I can be dangerous too. “All, right, listen up, sister, I’m only going to say this once!” I yelled. “I’ve got thick-soled hiking boots and I know how to use them!”

Then I happened to remember reading somewhere that snakes don’t have ears.

What I’m thinking is that it’s maybe two months or more before I’ll need to access the Christmas trims, and unless there’s a tornado warning, I probably don’t need to go down there until then.

But, if a storm threatens, I’ll probably be just as safe in an inside closet or a bathtub.

And, as a matter of fact, I think I’ll go to one of the kids’ houses for Christmas.

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Karen Middleton

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