Friday, October 23, 2009

Snake in the Fireplace!

Living next to a desert wash brings the most interesting critters our way. Unfortunately, sometimes they make it into the house.

Sounds that roust you out of a sound sleep in the middle of the night are never a good thing. Our two cats were clattering about on the rocks in our fireplace around 2:00 am--something they never do since they hate walking on the rocks. I thought maybe they found a pesky scorpion. I never would have thought in a million years it would be a snake. Gary got them to drop it and then the snake slithered back into the rocks. Two half-asleep people trying to get a very fast snake out of the fireplace with an assortment of tongs, oven mits, jars and sticks I'm sure looked quite amusing.

It was a baby snake--looked like a long worm.( I think the type point size in the orange is 24 pt to give you size perspective.) We were able to wrangle it into the special little animal habitat that I have just this type of occasion. I always have to have a good look at whatever comes our way. I looked online and it appears to be a desert night snake. Only slightly venomous--SLIGHTLY? Not supposed to be dangerous to humans at all. I read you should release animals where you find them but I decided to release it down the a few blocks down in the desert rather than back in the fireplace

Here's the dynamic duo on the lookout for their next catch.