Flow - Just Livin'

Flow - Just Livin'
Florida Sunrise

Thursday 25 February 2010

Saturday Part 3

Yes, I realize I have yet to post video or photos of the new house. I hope to get to that soon, but for now, picture in your mind the following scene……

One the east side of our house, the living room looks out over an enclosed lanai (a screened-in porch for my Arkansas friends and family). Jesse made a small door of plexiglass in one window so the cats could get in and out on their own, and enjoy the weather. And not drive us insane with constant meowing to go in and out. A very nice fixture, and Kylee, the 14-month-old girl I’ve been babysitting loves throwing her toys out of it.


Recently a driving wind ruined the door closer to the screened door on the lanai, so the door is open about six inches. This is good for the cats, but it was not so good Saturday morning.

I was washing off the countertops with my back to the cat door when I heard the blinds clatter and a small crashing sound. I turned just in time to see Lenny, the tuxedo cat, dive through the cat door with what looked like a black whip flying behind him like a cowboy’s lariat. I screamed. I’m not sure what; just suffice it to say I screamed.

It was a snake about four feet long, and Lenny had it by the tail!


Of COURSE he turned it loose in the living room and it got away from him, but was having trouble on the slippery tile floor, so Lenny was able to pounce on it.


I’m thinking, Get a shovel, get a bucket, call Jesse, get the camera


“Lenny, catch that snake!”

Living on a canal, I have been observant about the possibility of snakes, but haven’t seen a poisonous one yet. Not wanting to take chances, I grabbed the phone and called Jesse.


Who had just survived an adventure of his own when he stopped to photograph a family of wild hogs. The female started to charge and pawed the ground. He thought he could run and leap over a barbed wire fence, but noticed that the bottom wire was about three feet off the ground. He decided to run for the car, and made it. He got some pretty good pictures.


He said that, from my description, it was probably an indigo snake. They are a protected species in Florida, and he said we want them because they eat the poisonous snakes. That sounds reasonable, but now that I think about it, what is it doing here? Eating poisonous snakes. That must mean we HAVE POISONOUS SNAKES!


Pacifist that he is, he told me to get a bucket out of the garage and put it over the snake until he got home. He wanted to identify it.


I had calmed down by now, and thought it looked non-poisonous, so I found the camera and took a few TELEPHOTO shots. Then I got a bucket and, gingerly standing as far away as possible (and prepared to wet myself if it crawled my way) turned it upside-down over the snake and set a large clay flower pot on top of it.


When Jesse and Logan got home, we got a cookie sheet and slid it underneath the bucket and THEY carried the snake outside and released it in the brush.


We decided to close the cat door at night, at the very least. We don’t want critters slithering around when we’re asleep!

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