Not your average Friday night...

So, there we were. Speedy & I watching the previously-taped must-watch show. We'd been out to dinner earlier, shopped a bit at Books a Million & come home to have some coffee & watch our show. This is our night - the kids were next door for their weekly sleep-over with Granny & Grandaddy Chief. We had opened the back door when we got home so that the dogs could come in & out as they pleased. About 30 minutes into our show, I happened to glance over at the open door. There, inside our house was this. What you are looking at is about an 8 inch long baby rattle* snake.


I really do wish we had some kind of in-home surveillance camera system set up. We would win the $10,000 prize for America's Funniest Home Videos if anyone could have seen my reaction. I told Speedy quite calmly that there was a snake in the house, by the door. That was the end of my calm. He stopped the tape, moved closer & it moved. Until that point, my brain had not processed the situation. Let me tell you - I may be a bit slow, but my next reaction was so quick! I went from sitting down on the couch to standing on top of the cushions, screaming for him to KILL IT! KILL IT DEAD! He, of course, dealing with the hysterical wife holding the clueless rat terrier, grabbed the broom. I quickly informed him not to use my house broom - get the hoe! So there he goes - out the door by the snake. Please note that the next time you see me you'll see the additional gray hairs immediately. During his absence, I continued my part in this drama by yelling something along the lines of "God in Heaven, come down and smote this snake dead!" I consider this my wifely duty apparently, because it never occurred to me to do anything else. He came back in the front door with the shovel. What a good man. I of course, was doing my part by staying on the couch cushions, not taking my eyes off the thing. (Our ferocious basset hound mix had just walked by the snake to go outside - away from my screaming & Speedy's cussing.) At this point, I'm thinking that getting the shot gun is a great idea. I've always wanted a window at floor height in that corner of the house! I must say though that Speedy quickly & efficiently assassinated the intruder and saved the day. What a man! :) We saved the snake of course for his dad to look at it & confirm my suspicions that it was a rattler. He did & it was.
(*possibly - there's been some discussion about rattler vs. copperhead. of course all of this is mute since whichever it was, was being the key word, it was poisonous & it's NOW dead, dead, dead.)

Amazingly enough, at the time the picture was taken, the thing was still alive. Right after Speedy took the picture, it hissed at Speedy. Speedy threw the camera to me (still on top of the couch), grabbed the shovel & finished it off. :) My hero.

Now, according to a friend of mine, I will also need your prayers for my soul due to the fact that I killed a creature that was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Something along the lines of it not being the snake's fault that it came into my house. Well, that may be and I can definitely use all the prayers I can get, however, given the situation to do over, I would still say KILL IT DEAD! Sorry Aunt Camille. :) I'll try to work on that.