The Snake Story

No picture today because snakes actually give me the heebeejeebees.

To give you some back story, let me tell you a little bit about my childhood.

I grew up in a little town called Bois D'arc, Texas. Grandma and Grandpa owned 600 acres and my mom and her husband purchased property adjacent to Grandma and Grandpa's. My sister and I used to walk the distance between Grandma's house and our house. Later when a little car was purchased, we drove the distance, with Janne sitting on a telephone book and me watching out the passenger side for assistance. We were 8 & 9. Don't ask, it was completely normal in our world. Other times we would walk the distance to Grandma's and go through the watermelon patch. The watermelon patch was sandy and cool in the hot summer sun compared to the hot black asphalt on our bare feet. Shoes were for school and we typically ran barefoot. It was in our travels through the watermelon patch that my fear of snakes was realized. Oh, the little boy who brought a gardener snake to school scared me a bit. But is was the snake we met in the watermelon patch that sent spiders skittering down my back and loosened my bladder. Pretty sure I wet my pants when I met that snake. He/She was HUGE! Spanning the distance across our path and massively around, Janne and I ignored every warning taught to us and ran screaming away from the snake. After that meeting, we typically took the hot asphalt road and brought our goat, Blossom, or our Great Dane, or our German Shepherd, Sassy, or even calm little Patrick was asked to come along for protection from snakes.

I couldn't tell you how old I was when I met that snake, all I could tell you is that even today, I picture that snake in my head and still shudder.

Now fast forward to the year 2003. The snake I met in the '80's was a distant memory and I had happily lived a long time without meeting or seeing any snakes. But in November 2003, I came face to face with my worst fear.

Jon and I purchased our first home in 2003. We had been living and renting a 100+ year old farmhouse on 200 acres for $375 a month for three years. It was a cool house, huge, drafty, spacious and the budget price was perfect for our needs. When it was time to move on, we did and on that unseasonably warm November day, I was wrapping up the final packing. The last thing on my list was to gather my cats from the house and get them loaded into their carriers. There were five of them, Guy and Whiz (whom you have met), Sebastian (who you may have met), Oscar and Brat. Guy and Whiz had come to us as 2 week old kittens covered in maggots in 2002. Oscar, Sebastian and Brat had been with me since 1999. I had gotten all cats caught but Sebastian. I knew she had hidden herself in the attic on the second floor. Being an old house with several additions, the attic was accessed through the upstairs bedroom closet and was above the dining room.

I was walking on the beams above the dining room ceiling, praying I didn't misstep and fall through the drop ceiling. I was being cautious and trying to be sneaky to capture Ms. Sebastian, my elusive cat. She knew something was up, her world was changing, things were missing from her space, her friends were meowing in carriers down below and she wanted nothing to do with change. She was cantankerous.

So there I was walking/tiptoeing across the attic space and I hollared to Jon, "HAND ME A FLASHLIGHT!". Ever lasting last words. Seriously, you do not want to know what is in attic spaces in 100+ year old houses. At the time though, I was focused on capturing my damn cat and focused solely on that. The beam of the flashlight revealed my worst fears.













I was standing among a nest of HUNDREDS of snake skins.













Jon held up a skin and it was 6 feet long. My skills include running full speed across ceiling beams.

Later, two tenants later, we got word that the snake had been killed. The man renting the home had caught the snake sunning himself in the upstairs bedroom where the attic access was. It was an eight foot long black snake.

My guess is that it lived it's entire life in the house. In the walls. It probably slept in my bed. I probably stepped over it in my midnight stumble to the bathroom. I'm lucky it didn't eat my kittens, my puppies, my baby rabbits. The snake may explain the dead rats in the cellar.

I lived 3 years and 4 months with an 8 foot snake and never knew it till moving day.