I had not planned on writing a blog today -- but I have to. Early this morning, when I was out walking Sadie, I spotted something sad. "Our" snake was dead in the road. At first when I looked down the road I thought it was a squirrel. I hoped it was not one of "our" rabbits. But it was worse -- it was the snake.
A little over a year ago I wrote a blog about our snake. I do believe this is the same one. When looking up information on black snakes -- to see how long they live -- I find a variety of years specified. Some say there is no data, others say 10 to 15 years -- and still another site says that the snakes can live up to 20 years in captivity.
Someone hit mine with a car last night. I call it mine because I feel like we have lived in accord all of these years.
I saw it just a few weeks ago. I was in the yard, walking Sadie, and talking on the phone. I had just mentioned that I hadn't seen the snake yet this year -- and poof -- as if on cue it shows up at the edge of the woods. I watched as it crawled to the edge of the road and then out onto the hot road surface -- quickly crossing into the neighbor's yard across the street and disappearing into their bushes.
A couple years ago I saw the snake on our patio tangled in netting we use to keep the rabbits out of the plants. My husband worked for a couple hours cutting the netting away carefully to release the snake. When he freed the snake with exception of the head -- we called our local animal control to come help. The animal control officer held the head while my husband continued to trim the net from the snake. We released it back into the woods.The officer was pleased to see that we worked to free the snake. She said most people would have just killed it and thought nothing of it.
Years ago, not long after we moved here, one night there was a black snake in my kitchen on the floor. My husband was out of town at the time and I called a neighbor to come over and help get it out of the house. He swept it up into a dustpan and tossed it out the front door. I believe this was the same snake. Snakes are not really territorial -- but they have a tendency to hang around a den site that they "like."
After taking a few photos this morning, I used a shovel to place the snake back into the woods for the last time.
1 comment:
Sorry to hear it, but glad that you work hard to live in accord with natural world around you. We do the same teaching the kids not kill bugs and such, but instead to capture them and put them back outside.
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