Why Maria Hates Snakes...

The wonderful comments and questions I received on yesterday's post got me to thinking.  As a child I had snakes for pets but had to keep them in the barn.  Mom wouldn't allow them in the house, don't know why.  Snakes have never been a problem for me and have always had dogs that were trained to eliminate them.  I, too, have no problem eliminating a poison one.  I try to move the others to a place further into the woods.

Well, as my mind was traveling through all the snake tales, I thought of how terrified my youngest daughter is of snakes.  The evil me laughed out loud because I remembered why!

I had a pair of Thrushes building a nest by the chicken house when Maria was about twelve, I'm guessing.  I call them Thacker birds because this is the sound their song makes.  My Thacker birds were throwing a fit, Maria and I went to look. 

Sure enough, there was a huge black snake trying to eat my baby birds.  The parents were bomb diving it and trying to get the snake to leave. I sent Maria after the gun, while I kept an eye on the snake.  He is about midway in a thick cedar tree about twenty-five feet off the ground, I did not want to lose him, especially this close to my egg laying hens. He is wrapped around a limb, striking at the birds as they attack him.

Maria arrives with the gun and the dog.  I think I may have had to shoot a couple of times.  The snake was hard to see in the branches and I was using a twenty-two.  I hit it, it fell.

Zara, the dog, jumped on it and started shaking it like a dirty rug.  Zara let go, the snake was not completely dead and it wrapped around Maria's bare leg.  I'm really sorry but it was a funny sight!!!  Maria is hopping one legged, screaming, Mom, get it off me!!!  I am laughing so hard at the sight I can't function.  From ankle to knee, Maria is wearing a live snake and it's not happy.  Neither is Maria!

Come oonnnnnnnnnnn, guys, it was a black snake, perfectly harmless except to my Thacker birds.  I finally grabbed the snake and with Zara's help, we unwrapped it from Maria's leg.  She ran screaming to the house and left me and Zara alone for the kill.  Zara did the job.

Maria, I apologize for such a tramatic...but funny...event.  And that is why Maria HATES snakes.

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