Love my little house. Love. And, when I was renovating, doing most of the gutting and clearing out myself, I discovered there were snakes in the wall, including one whopper of a milk snake at least 5′ long. Now, in general, snakes startle but don’t scare me. Granted, I have never come across a rattle snake or a cobra, but still, in my view because they eat rodents and bugs, they’re okay by me all around. Just don’t slither my way when I haven’t seen you there in the grass, startling me, which they do regardless of my kind regard, and support for their gustatory pursuits.
Here he is, found resting under a few rags I had for whatever purpose on a future shelf, about 2/3rds of the way through the reno. Cute, ain’t he? He slithered away back down and into the wall, possibly because I was laughing and screaming so loudly… sorry, Milky.
Garter, ring, green, and milk snakes – harmless garden friends who gobble up pests, and hardly to blame for the ignominious manner in which the snake is depicted in the Bibble, as a tool and friend of Satan. A woman I once knew (she is deceased) would go nuts, finding them in her garden, crushing them to death with repeated blows of a shovel or rake; she was not terrified except that Satan thing resonated, and all I could do was wonder at it, for otherwise she was a gentle creature. People are, in my view, all too often assholes when it comes to nature and her wild creatures. Bats are another one. They can gobble up mosquitos by the thousands during the night. Please let them! Please. Especially as the globe warms and tropical diseases, often carried by skeeters, make their way north. Sigh.
So yes, there were snakes in the walls of my house and there probably are to this day. Fine. Whatever. The day I found Mr. Big in the wall was a day I had the shop-vac going and what the heck, that electrical cord is – moving? I jumped off the ladder, managing not to hurt myself, and was torn between horror and laughter as I saw the ‘electrical cord’ make its way up the actual electrical wires in the wall to my 2nd floor guest bedroom. What the actual FCK?! It was the sunny wall of the house, facing east (ha! she’s no fool) and given the amount of mice droppings I was also vacuuming up, better you, snake-friend, than those filthy little fckers (they’re cute, but did you know when they’re dropping their droppings, they’re also peeing the whole time? ick).
Here it is – because once I got back on the ladder (after I stopped laughing), I had to capture it – photographically only, of course! the 2nd shot is in the guest bedroom on the 2nd floor of mi casa. Do come for an overnight stay, won’t you? 😉
