Snake and Mouse

"A narrow Fellow in the Grass

Occasionally rides -

You may have met him? Did you not

His notice instant is -

The Grass divides as with a Comb,

A spotted Shaft is seen,

And then it closes at your Feet

And opens further on -

He likes a Boggy Acre -  

A Floor too cool for Corn -

But when a Boy and Barefoot

I more than once at Noon

Have passed I thought a Whip Lash

Unbraiding in the Sun

When stooping to secure it

It wrinkled And was gone -

Several of Nature’s People

I know, and they know me

I feel for them a transport

Of Cordiality

But never met this Fellow

Attended or alone

Without a tighter Breathing

And Zero at the Bone."

- Emily Dickinson

We had a recurring visit from this narrow fellow.

A gopher snake, I think.

At first it was finding the occasional snake skin...

Then he was always out surprising us basking on the rocks...

Then he was going in and out of the garage whenever he wanted...

Then he slithered right up to us and the kids...

So Richard took a shovel, and chopped off his head.

(It was pretty heroic.)

As a Texan, I wouldn't care for you to think I was afraid of the little guy.

But they do bite if they are threatened,

so we didn't feel all that comfortable with how comfortable he was feeling.

Then we dared the kids to pick up the body.

Looks like we have the winning ophiophilist!

The muscles really creepily kept twirling around things even without a head...

The stuff of nightmares if you ask me.

"But he would have eaten lots of mice," people say to me.

I'd rather see a mouse in my garage than a snake.

Plus. he wasn't really doing a great job with the mice...

We saw a scurrying visitor one night...

he climbed right up into my piano!

We quickly dismantled the whole thing,

and we could see him!

But we couldn't reach him.

We never saw him come back out...

Then a few nights later,

Richard spotted him in our bedroom in the middle of the night!

And you remember the shovel incident from earlier?

Well, needless to say this tiny mouse didn't stand a chance.

We are always open to visitors at our house...

with a few small exceptions.