snake in the rain

So the other night I was watching Dancing With the Stars, and there came a tapping on my door. A vigorous tapping. Alright, an urgent knocking. Anyway. I, looking particularly lovely in my nightshirt and sweatpants, answer the door, and this young woman says something to the effect of we just saw a snake heading to your garage and wanted to let you know so it wouldn't get into your house! Let me tell you, she got my attention with that.

I stepped out into the misty dampness to see what she was talking about, and sure enough, there was a snake about a couple of feet long and maybe 3/4" to 1" in diameter slinking to the side of the garage door where the weatherstripping doesn't go all the way across. (They must have a way to sense the heat or dryness or something for it to know where it was going.) Of course by this time I'm picking up the girl's excitement as my own, asking what am I going to do????? One of the guys in the car suggests getting some really hot water on it. He obviously doesn't realize how long it takes for my water to heat up all the way to the kitchen sink. But I did put some water in a pitcher, ran to the garage, opened the door, and slung the water at the snake...getting about a cup on him. Just made him move a little faster. Terry (the fellow making the hot water suggestion)got a stick and managed to get him before he got into the corner under a shelf thing. I grabbed a shovel, and started whacking. By this time, we were all making our share of noise, and my neighbor and his wife from next door come over to see what's going on. Of course it crossed my mind that I must look really great in my sweats and nightshirt but surely nobody would look too close when there's a snake to look at. I whacked 3 or 4 times, hitting his back. Terry got the shovel, and managed to whack off his head. Whew. But I was really surprised when the mouth kept moving at least another 3 or 4 minutes. Well, maybe only 30 seconds, but it felt like 3 or 4 minutes. We got him into a trash bag, and the excitement was over.

I asked how they happened to see the snake? Turns out they were turning around in my driveway, and happened to see him in the headlights.

You know, several years ago when I lived out in the country I probably wouldn't have been too surprised at something like this happening. I've got to say I was a bit taken aback at this happening in town, and not too thrilled. But, I survived and that's all that matters. That, and I'm glad it was Monday night and not Tuesday night when I had my house full of bunco ladies!