I’m sorry for this post. I just need to vent or I’ll never get to sleep. Or if I do I’m going to have horrible dreams.
First off, this is the first snake I have ever seen, in ten years of living in Warrandyte. At an intellectual level I knew they had to be around, but I told myself the alpacas must scare them away, or the cats, or maybe they don’t like it here coz there’s nowhere to hide…
Well this poor little snake was trying to hide – in a pile of leaves that had collected in the mini bunker in front of my fire fighting pumps. It could not have chosen a worse place to try and hide.
Mogi, the cats and I went out for our ‘pee walk’ as we always do and they immediately ran towards the bunker, peering down at it from above.
I heard the rustle of dry leaves as I ran up. To be honest I thought it might be a possum, or something mammalian, but the torch soon showed it was a snake…right in front of the wire mesh doors of the pump house. The thought of being bitten while I or my Daughter turn the pumps on gave me the chills, so I knew it had to go.
Despite this though, I would have thrown rocks at it or something, to make it go and find a better place to hide but…my beautiful, stupid, STUPID! cats were watching it with great interest, and Pippi had already jumped down to investigate. Mogi [the dog] was holding back but I knew it wouldn’t be for long. So I grabbed a flat bladed shovel and… cut the snake in half. 😦
I was not brave. Not even a little. I was standing up above, about a metre above the ground where the snake was hiding. It couldn’t hurt me in a million years, and I feel more horrible than I can say. But I had to do it to protect my furkids.
I still feel sick though. I’ve never consciously, deliberately, with malicious forethought tried to kill anything before, at least nothing bigger than a spider or a fly. Now I have and I pray I never have to kill another snake as long as I live.
Thank you for being my wailing wall tonight.
-hugs-
Meeks
Authors' favourite books
NANO 2012
December 21st, 2014 at 10:37 pm
Oh Meeks, what a horrible dilemma. But I agree that your furfriends came first. As well, if you ever needed to use the pump (and may that day never come) you couldn’t be hampered by thinking that the snake might be lurking there.
Amazing that you have never seen a snake before.
LikeLike
December 22nd, 2014 at 11:35 am
Thanks, Anne. And yes, I’m looking under every bush now. [half joking].
The alpacas do keep the block properly mowed, and we’re up on the ridge line so not on the way to water, but perhaps it/they were attracted to the frogs in the fish pond, or perhaps just to the water. 😦
LikeLike
December 24th, 2014 at 7:20 am
I visit friends in the country on a fairly regular basis. Only once have I seen a snake, but I always stomp my way across their land, and usually walk behind someone else, often right behind (!). That was until I started to wear gumboots, an d while uncomfortable, they made me feel brave!
Have a relaxing and happy break over Christmas. I hope it is full of family and love. Xoxox
LikeLike
December 24th, 2014 at 12:20 pm
I used to wear either gumboots or my Bluntstones whenever I was outside but…you get lazy and complacent after a while.
One thing I still do religiously is carry a torch at night. No way I’m stepping on something in the dark! Yuk.
Happy Christmas to you too Anne. 🙂
LikeLike
December 21st, 2014 at 9:59 am
Try to be cool, Meeks. If I ever saw a snake in my garden, I’m pretty sure I’d do the same thing *hugs*
LikeLike
December 21st, 2014 at 12:21 pm
Thanks. I know I did what I had to do but… I hate killing anything.
LikeLike
December 21st, 2014 at 9:50 am
I catch them, and take them away from the house. If you’d put the animals inside, maybe you could have rung a snake catcher? They are protected, Sorry for you and very sorry for the snake!
LikeLike
December 21st, 2014 at 12:24 pm
I’ve called a snake catcher before but the snake, or possible lizard, was gone by the time he got there. Unfortunately this was at 11 o’clock at night and I had 3 animals all trying to get closer to have a look. Plus the snake was cornered. 😦
It was just a horrible confluence of everything going wrong at once. 😦
LikeLike
December 21st, 2014 at 3:33 am
Oh you poor thing!
I second David’s suggestion: get one of those long-handled gripper things.
Also seconding the hug. {{{hugs}}}
LikeLike
December 21st, 2014 at 12:24 pm
Thank you. -hugs back-
LikeLike
December 21st, 2014 at 1:27 am
Dearest Meeks, I really feel for you. But, you can’t reproach yourself for taking the action you did as you said yourself, you were protecting the furkids and/or yourself and daughter.It was an evil necessity unless you have the equipment to catch snakes harmlessly and release them somewhere safe.You made a difficult choice but it was the right one.
Killing s not fun but this was not premeditated so you should rest easy.
If I were you I’d invest in a pair of those long handled grippers old farts like me use to pick things up when we can’t bent far enough in case you hit this problem ever again.
xxx Massive Hugs xxx
LikeLike
December 21st, 2014 at 12:27 pm
-grin- Thanks for the hugs but unless you know how to handle snakes safely, grippers or no, the best bet is to leave them alone.
Jennifer knows how; I don’t. -shakes head- Really wish things could have been different.
I thank you all for letting me vent though. It actually helped me sleep, eventually.
LikeLike