So the other morning, the day the weather was turning and colder and winter decided to drop back by for a little visit, I went down to our little basement garage to check my seedlings. I was congratulating myself for being slow to put the plants out in the garden now that the weather was turning cold again. I walked into the room and saw my growing racks glowing with nice, warm light.
I stepped closer to give my little darling plants a good inspection. The trays were empty of water but the soil in the pots was still moist so I decided against watering on this day. I noticed a few of the plants were getting stringy and needed a little more light. I usually rotate the plants around so they can take turns being directly under the lights so they don't get too long-stemmed on me.
I began to reach forward to grab the edge of a pot when I noticed a slight movement. I pulled my hand back and looked closer. There, on the second self, nestled between the pots in the nice, warm light was a bunch of coils. Black, scaly coils. Oh boy!
So I went to the garage and grabbed this:
And these:
because I couldn't find any of the long-handled grabber-thingies that Jason uses for his patients and are always laying around the house driving me crazy but on this particular day there wasn't a single one to be found anywhere.
And back to the basement garage I went.
I began by moving some of the pots farthest away from the coils, working my way to the inevitable (don't want to hurt all my precious little seedlings!). Finally I got to the pot right in front of the coils. Taking a deep breath, trying to steel my nerves, I took hold of the pot and moved it out of the way. There lay a little black snake. I was really hoping it was just a rat snake of some sort but as soon as I moved the pot it shot up to attention and locked its eye right on me in a very aggressive posture. Great. Cotton mouth?
I noticed that it looked like it might have one eye put out. I moved to the back of the tray and pulled a couple more pots away from it. I wanted a nice clear area to work in, there was no way I could let this thing get away, it was in the house and I didn't know what kind of snake I was dealing with.
The movement behind his head took his attention so I could sneak back around to the front of the trays and get my battle stance on. Hoping that the cool air in the room might slow him down a bit I grabbed the pliers (or vice grips or channel locks whatever Jason calls them) and made a grab for the area just at the back of the snake's head.
O.k., actually I stood there frozen and scared for a few seconds but I finally did make a grab for the back of the snake's head.
As soon as I got a grip on him I found out really fast that the cool air in the room was not affecting him at all. Not one bit. Apparently the warming lamps are doing their job! The little snake went nuts, wrapping itself all around the pliers. (We're just going to call them pliers for the sake of the story, all right?! I know they have a real name but I don't really care, I'm battling with a snake right now and I do, for the record, have an awesome battle stance!)
I kept a firm grip so his little head couldn't get loose. I was really afraid I might be dealing with a cotton mouth. The whole hanging out in the water tray, aggressive attitude, going insane thing.
I stuck his head down into the jar but his body was wrapped around the pliers, PLIERS, and my hand and he was not going to let go. So I started shaking him a bunch trying to get him to let go. And to try to work off some of my panic too. Finally I kind of scraped him off on the rim of the jar and he loosened his coils so I could drop him into the jar. I quickly slammed the lid of the jar down and screwed it on as fast as my adrenalin pumped hands could go. The snake proceeded to strike at the side of the jar, jumping all over the place.
Whooo-hoooo! That was excitin' ma!
I gave the snake a few minutes to settle down. O.k., actually, after a few minutes I came to.... ;)
After he settled down a bit I picked up the jar to bring it upstairs. The little snake was striking away at the side of the jar, jumping at my face every time I looked at him. (I think I must be dealing with a teenager snake!)
When the kids got home they noticed the jar and came to see what mom had caught today. As soon as David leaned down to get a look the little monster started hitting the side of the jar again trying to bite David. I'm thinking we're going to have to get him into some anger management classes or something.
Finally getting the bugger to settle down so I could get a better look at him he is a non-poisonous snake. YAY!!!!!! No cotton mouth in my house! Whooooo! (never thought I'd be saying THAT in my lifetime!)
So, anyways, yeah.
That was fun.
Oh, and here's the cute little devil before we took him to a land far, far away to go free:
