A Snaky Tale

Let me tell you a story………

My Dad was a real bushy in his earlier days and used to catch snakes in western Queensland and send them to the Brisbane Museum.  When I was a kid, I loved taking snakes and spiders and such in jars to school for show and tell.

As I’ve got older I’ve developed a fear – well probably more like a phobia about snakes.  I hate them!!!!

Mick would have liked to move out of town years before we did as he had grown up on a property.  My fear of snakes kept us in town.  We saw a few of the snake man demonstrations at the local show and such and I learnt that yes, if you froze they forget you are a threat due to their tiny brain ….. but they never told me what I needed to know until I asked the really dumb, girly question……….. “But can you scream?”  The answer, after everyone finished snickering, was that yes, I can scream as snakes are deaf.  Now I felt better.  At least I could yell out to Mick if I saw a snake.

We moved out of town and I’ve seen quite a few now……. yes, it is nearly always me that spots the snake.  We have lost 1 dog, 1 chook and have had 2 cats bitten, but saved.  I breathe a huge sigh of relief ever day when I come home and see the animals running around.  I hate snakes.

I have never killed a snake and I’ve never touched a snake.

We didn’t see any in the yard for the last two summers, but the year before we had 6 in the yard during the warmer months.

Yesterday Mick saw one near our top gate, we saw one crossing the road when we were on the bike (fortunately it was on the other side of the road) and a fresh dead one on the road.

This afternoon I went out onto the back verandah and noticed Biggles our Jack Russell  watching something intently in the herb garden.  I called him, but being his usual independent soul a disobedient dog he totally ignored me.  However, my calling roused Felix our cat from his nap on the chair on the verandah.  He walked towards the edge of the verandah, which is about 18 inches off the ground and started watching something intently under the ramp down to the yard.  I couldn’t see anything…….and then in the grass I spotted about 6 inches of scales……the mid section of a brown snake!!! It was so well hidden. 

I ran around to the front of the house where Mick was working in the garden doing some plumbing for our pressure pump and tank to water the garden and yelled that there was a snake.  He took off over to the shed, and as he left I heard a rustle in the garden below me.  The verandah is about 6 foot above the ground at the front and there was ANOTHER SNAKE wriggling its way along the front of the house in the garden.

I yelled at Mick again.  He got his weapon of choice, known as “The Big Stick” better known as a 12 gauge shot gun….shot the one at the back of the house, which Felix was watching but not attacking, and then ran around the front and shot the other one.

MY HERO!!

What are the chances of having two snakes near the house at the same time?

They were both about the same size, but one was still wriggling a bit when I took the photo. I was too stunned to think of taking a photo until Mick suggested it.  I’m glad he did.

By the way, I don’t know what Biggles was watching, I just hope it wasn’t a third one!

I’m really glad I saw them both, as Mick might have been under the house doing some of the plumbing with two snakes for company ….it doesn’t bear thinking about.