Needless to say I launched myself over the snake and ran for my door, fumble with my keys and stumbled outside. my heart was racing, and my hands were clenched in fists...why fists? Was I going to punch the snake on the nose? I have no idea....about fight and flight happened all at once in my body.
Knocking on my the other cottage of the property, the lady opens the door and I realize she is equally scared of snakes. There was no one else home to help and I was not going back in there. I honestly had no idea that I was scared of snakes until I owned a cat and had to encounter snakes. Usually they are headless ones in the grass...and even that freaks me out and makes me ask someone else to throw them away. . .
But this was different. . . This one was ALIVE and in MY house. Then this lady says something profound, "What if it gets away from your cat and hides in your house?" That was scarier than my fear. The thought of a snake hidden somewhere in my house for me to accidentally discover, or to imagine it in my bed or something....I had to swallow my fear and go and do something.
So I go back to my house, cautiously like I am hunting a giant lion not a snake. all the while I am chanting, "Please not in my bedroom, please not in my bedroom." The cat has the snake under my chez lounge. The snake is rearing up at my cat.... and I am still shaking. I spot my broom and decide I am going to try sweep this snake out keeping as much distance as possible.
First gently smack my cat on the broom to get him removed from the equation. That was truly comical because he was so intently watching the snake that he didn't hear me coming for home till the broom made contact. His reaction resemble my fight flight but in high speed. it was too funny.
Then I start sweeping the snake out. eveytime I touched it with the broom, it would turn on me...even writing this i get a shudder and a shiver....horrible feelings.
Eventually I get it out my house and down the step onto my patio. . . the other tenant had come to watch....from a distance. Now the snake is on my patio and i think, "Now what?" if I leave it there, it could come back inside or go into the garden. If it goes back into the garden then I might never go back into the garden. Both these scenarios mean my cat will find it and return it....what to do. what to do.
So we spot a bucket, we decide that I should try sweep it in the bucket. That means getting even closer to this thing. So I get it into the bucket while the other lady offers encouragement ....again from a distance. We eventually decide we are going to run across the road and up from the house to a clump of bushes on the pavement/sidewalk. Far away from the house and deposit the snake there.
So the lady tells me not to grab the bucket till she gives the ok. . . meanwhile there is nothing in me that wants to grab that bucket. In my brain I am imagining it climbing out and onto my arm. She first scouts out the land...well the road, to make sure we wont be spotted....like we are committing a huge crime. then she opens the electric gate to our property and yells, "go!go! go!" ...I grab the bucket and hold it as far away from me as possible but still in my line of vision so i can ensure the snake is still in there. I ran as fast as my legs will carry me....but no ordinary run...one of those tiptoe lift the knees high run, maybe because i was convinced there were more snakes everywhere coming to save their friend.
Finally I make it to the bushes and launch the snake into them. Just after I did that, I hear the lady's voice "car alert". I try slow my walk and look relaxed and innocent despite my racing heart and quivering hands. Desperately trying to look like its perfectly normal to be walking down the street, barefoot with an empty bucket. . . .so that was yesterday's adventure....all thanks to my cat....and this little guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment