Snakes!

     Well, the fleas are about gone! Sevin spray has really taken care of them, for the most part.  But let me tell you about the other pest I have.
     My dad always liked having a snakes around.  I  never understood why.  Whenever I saw one, my first response was to kill it, but he looked to see if it was good or bad!  Who takes the time to look at a snake.  It could attack while you are looking.  In my opinion, they all bite and they all hurt.
     When I was seven, we had just moved to the location I now live.  As all kid did in those days, we played outside until we were told to come in.  My siblings and I were playing across the road, someplace we were told not to go.  There was a dirt bank that you had to climb with holes for footholds and handholds already in place.  I guess you could compare it to the rock climbing walls of today.  This bank was as high as our house, so when we got to the top we could look down to see everything.  We were the king and queen of the hill.
     Well, one day we started our ascent.  Using the foot and hand hold that were in place.  I was the last in line.  When I got knee high to one of these footholds, a "stick" hit me on the knee. But I didn't let a stick keep me from climbing to the top.  Once at the top, my siblings wanted to go deep into the forest arces on top and explore.   By then I was sick to my stomach.  I went inside as they went on.  My knee was swelling and looked like a yellow melon.  When my mother saw it, I don't know if she was more upset that we were playing in a forbidden zone or that I was hurt. I was sent to bed.
    Later that night, my knee really started swelling.  It was decided to take me to the orthopedic doctor to see if I broke it.  This was before HMO, PPO and the need to get  a call from your family physician. You just called the doctor you needed and went.  My parent decided I had broken my bone, not another physician.  I don't remember much about the trip to the doctor or going into his examining room, but once we got there the doctor saw the fluid on my knee and drew some out with suction.  After he examined it in his office under a microscope, he found it to be snake venom.  What kind of snake was still unknown.  I don't remember if I was given a shot or not.  It all is just blur.
     I do remember waking up at my maternal grandparent house.  Sleeping on her fold out couch.  My knee was bandaged so heavily I could not bend it.  I missed the second grade classes for a while.   Mom brought my lessons to me and I would finish them and she would take them back.  To this day I don't understand why I was not at home.
      Weeks past and I would not walk.  It hurt too much.  I would stay in bed, sleeping most of the time. When in became apparent I would not walk again, my aunts bought me a surprise.  When I woke up, they told me there was a surprise in the house somewhere.  I would need to find it.  Try as they might I would not get off the bed.  When I put any weight on my leg I would collapse. So they told me to  close my eyes. I did so and started hearing a whining.  When I opened my eyes there was nothing there. The noise was there but nothing to go with it. They told me I had to find the noise.  So sliding around on my bottom, I found the source of the noise behind the TV.  It was a black and white puppy.  I had found him like you find a lucky penny.  So I named him Penny.
     I recouperated from that snake bite and went back to school and home taking Penny with me.
Later, one summer we found a snake in our mailbox.  There was a den of snakes found in the back yard.  So many snakes around in the country.
     When I moved into my daddy's house after his death I didn't think about the snakes that were there.  Over the years of visting him, he had said don't kill them and I wouldn't. But after about a year of living there, one decided to come inside.  I had a small dog staying in the house with me. I have always had a terrible time sleeping all the way through the night. So when I do sleep it is a miracle. But this night of miracles I was awaken by my dog barking like there was no tomorrow.  With my cell phone in hand, I went in to the dining room to see what was going on.  He would just bark at the kitchen.  He would not go into the kitchen.  The light switch for the kitchen is not at the door, you have to enter the kitchen and turn the light on from across the room, walking through the dark. With the dog still barking, I entered.  Turned the light on. Looked around at the dog and said, "see, there are no bugger bears." But he continued to bark and would not come in the kitchen. After lots of screaming and threatening for the dog to stop barking I noticed what he was barking at. 
    Under the ledge of my oven was a 12" snake.  Just laying there.  Not moving. I had already walked by him several times and had not noticed. He was heading for the dog's water bowl. Needless to say, I screamed even louder. I had just taken my grandchildren and their mothers to the zoo in New Orleans. We saw the snakes.  This one looked like the coral snake that was behind the glass.
     It was 2am, my children were out of town but I started texting from  my cell phone anyway.  "I have a snake in my kitchen."  I was standing in the kitchen chair, jumping up and down.  I guess if anyone had been there they would have laughed because it is not everyday you see a 200+ pound women screaming in a chair.  My younger son who was the furthest away and has a sleeping habit much like mine texted me back "??" At least he was awake.  If I was bitten, he would know what happened.  What's a single person to do, without a phone?
     So, I gathered my wits! Got a broom and went after the snake who had not moved.  I jabbed at him with the brush end of the broom and he went wild. He was doing crazy eights in the broom. I dropped the broom and stayed in the chair.  Never use a broom to kill a snake. He wiggled behind the refrigerator. 
Now have you ever had this happen to you, a snake behind the refrigerator?  I texted my son again.  I told him where it was and that I was going to kill it.  I got down out of the chair and got a walking stick!! I climbed back into the chair.  I don't know why I was standing in a chair, snakes can climb walls.  Somehow I was able to move a full refrigerator from the wall and stab the snake who was climbing the wall by this time. I texted my son, "the snake is dead."  He was deposited in the trash can outside.   I didn't get any more sleep that night. 
     Just a few days ago I had a leak in my bathroom. There are no shut off valves under the sink (must be another great idea of my parents), so I had to go to the main water valve outside and turn it off.  When I raised the lid,  I noticed several white leathery oval balls in the dirt.  Not knowing exactly what they were, I broke on open.  Out rolls a baby snake. All in all there were six eggs. Now, I didn't think snakes laid eggs.  Such is the life in the country. I did notify the water company. Just in case the meter reader came across the mama one day.
    The country is not a place for wimps. Of which I am one.  Rural Mississippi is country.