Wild Things

We live in the woods not far from Mount Vernon. Even though we're only about twelve miles from the Capitol in Washington, you'd never know it from the view out of our windows. This week has been Nature Week at Little Hunting Creek. We have had two deer on our back porch, just walking around and looking for hostas to munch on, a wild turkey this morning and yesterday - a SNAKE in the downstairs hallway. Yes, you read that right. A black Snake, just outside J. Hunting Creek's bathroom, in the downstairs hallway, just chillin'. Mr. Hunting Creek almost ran into Mr. Black Snake and called me from downstairs, yelling, "hey, there's a snake in the hallway!" That's the kind of announcement that gets my immediate attention.
Two years ago in summer, I had spotted Mr. Black Snake in the living room. J. Hunting Creek had left the back door open a smidgen and that was just enough for Mr. Snake to come in and make himself at home. I thought he was a belt on the floor and almost walked over to pick him up until he moved and I realized that he was not a belt at all. It is a heart stopping realization that what you think is an inanimate object is in fact alive. I was alone in the house and had a brief panic attack, and then got hold of myself. I called Mr. Hunting Creek at work. No luck, he was on one of his eternal conference calls. I called my daughter. She is always full of practical advice. She said to call Animal Control. They sent over a very nice man who told me all about what I need to know about snakes while he searched for my snake, who had decided to make himself scarce while I was letting the officer in. My son joined in the search and the officer told us everything we ever needed to know about capturing black snakes. Basically, they are harmless, and we were so lucky that the snake would eat our crickets and mice. No problem that we couldn't find him! He would let himself out!
Well, now we know that he did NOT let himslf out, because there he was in the hallway yesterday. Mr. Hunting Creek felt some hesitation about just grabbing him with his bare hands and I don't blame him. I thought fast - why not put a box over him, slide my large rotary cutting board underneath, and have my own personal Team Six- Snake Removal Division, remove him to the front yard? The capture went flawlessly. The cutting board/box on top of snake prevented escapes, and it was easy for Team Six to take him outside and set him free. I held the door.
It's been a busy week and it's only Wednesday. (This is an excellent reason, if you needed a reason, to buy a large rotary cutting board. Useful for rotary cutting patterns and snake captures!)