Last night was scary...really scary. I should have known, something always goes wrong when Jarrod is out of town. Thank goodness he's home tonight.
Here is the story...
After dinner, Z and I headed outside so I can empty the scrap bucket into the compost pile. This is a normal thing for us. She just goes straight to her house and plays while I take care of business. Last night was no different. I headed towards the garden while Zeda went right to her house, rang the bell and went in. I was over at the pile for at least a min, dumping the scraps, pulling weeds from the garden and locking the bin our compost is in. I could hear her playing in the house so I thought things were good. I started walking towards the house and I saw something black. In a matter of seconds, I realized Zeda was on the ground trying to hold this big black snake that is completely flopping around. I screamed! Loud! It scared her, she jumped up and started to cry. I rushed over, picked her up and realized the snake was still there and was stuck to something that was previously stuck to the house. It's mouth was suck which immediately gave me peace that it didn't bit her. I realize now, it's probably just a really big garden snake, Jarrod thinks it might be a king snake but from the pictures I looked at, I'm pretty sure it's a garden one and they don't really bit. In the moment, however, I was FREAKING OUT. Trying to call Jarrod...wondering if Zeda now had this deadly disease, looking her over for marks and immediately rushing her inside for a bath.
So, I might have been a bit dramatic but I was thoroughly traumatized seeing my 14month old hold a large snake. The scary part to me, is I don't know how long she had held/been touching it...because I didn't check the house first. Lesson learned: Never let Z in her play house until checking it first.
The story continues...
After Z's bath, I went outside to see if the snake was gone, that's when I noticed it was
completely stuck to the "play" mirror. It was basically pulling the skin off it's body trying to get free. I have no idea how long it had been stuck, but weird stuff was coming out of his body and it was dying a very slow painful death. I was still traumatized from seeing my child hold it that I couldn't bring myself to help, so I left it. Throughout the evening, I heard it a couple times banging against the side of the house trying to get free and I started feeling guilty that it was suffering. I talked to Jarrod and he was like, "Oh Becca, you just left it to die?" He, of course, did not have to witness the drama of it all. He made me feel super bad and convinced me to try and "free" the snake. I made him stay on the phone as I pulled on this (bigger than a garden hose) snake to freedom. It was awful! I was only making it worse. So, the next option was to put it out of it's misery. Jarrod didn't believe that I couldn't free it. He kept pushing me to keep trying, but I was becoming more and more sick by the min so I went and got the shovel. It took me awhile to actually bring myself to do it, and I'll spare you those details, but it was horrible horrible horrible. I know you will all think I'm gross but I kept the snake (in the dumpster) so Jarrod can see him...to prove, I wasn't able to release the poor guy.
I know those of you who live in the country, deal with this all the time...but I hope, I never ever have to kill a snake again...not fun.
It's bigger then it looks here...
When I was on the phone with Jarrod, (freaking out) Z kept ringing the bell and saying "Hey" to her new friend. I kept pulling her back; she wanted to go in.
All is well in the Murdaugh house now that Zeda is clean and free from snake cooties! :)
