Little Visitor

Several years ago it was not unusual for us to get upwards of ten snakes a year in our yard. Ten rattlesnakes. I believe our record was thirteen rattlers around our yard in one summer. Consequently, we went to great lengths to teach our kids not to play with snakes.

We moved to a different house a few years ago and were thrilled to discover that although we have some bull snakes wandering around, there are very few rattlesnakes around the house.

Periodically, we continue to remind the kids that snakes are off-limits and apparently the older kids remember that lesson. This afternoon while we were working by the shop, my son started hollering, "Snake! Mom, there's a snake here!" I grabbed a shovel and went to protect my child from a nasty reptile.

Okay, it wasn't exactly a life-threatening situation, but it was a snake. Just an itty-bitty garter snake, but a snake nonetheless. After everyone had a chance to look at the snake we turned him loose, explaining to the kids that he was harmless.

Lesson learned: It may be difficult to convince an almost-two year old that snakes are dangerous when his mother is holding the snake down with a shovel and taking pictures of it simultaneously.  He kept waving hello and yelling, "Hiya snake!" over and over again.