For the purposes of frightening my mother...

As I am walking out of our bathroom, I look towards the front door and hear my husband (who is standing on the front porch) say, "Hey baby, did you see this snake? Come here."

I proceed to walk outside, look to my left, and see an over 2 foot long, beautiful reptile stretched out on our porch. My husband says, "I think it's a Copperhead."

So, we proceed to call his co-worker, who knows something about snakes, and she said we could send a picture to her to see if she could identify it. Sure enough, she identified it, and she added, "It's a big one." We decided to kill it, since the bite from a Copperhead snake will most definitely send a person to the hospital (and probably mortally wound our cats). She warned us that it can strike within half the length of it's body (in our case, probably a little over a foot). As Josh went to get a shovel, it crawled into some wood we had on the porch, so it ended up kind of defensive once we moved some of its hiding place.

So, my husband, my hero, successful killed it with a shovel. I watched the entire time, praying to God that he wouldn't miss. Now, we're as nice as it can be when it comes to trying not to kill wildlife outside our home, and if we see black garden snakes, which are very beneficial in eating rodents (and I've been told, Copperhead snakes), we leave them alone, but when it comes to poisonous snakes, we don't play very nice. Interesting enough, this snake belongs to the family of pit viper snakes that account for the largest number of snake bites in a year. As far as I can tell, bites from this snake are not deadly to adults, just extremely painful, swollen, and nausea inducing. Mr. or Mrs. Snake, is no longer with us. I'm sure some snake lovers out are gasping in horror now, and others might call us a bit stupid since many people get bitten while trying to kill snakes (this one's defense mechanism is to stay very still unless someone encroaches upon his/her personal space), but I will sleep a little easier knowing there is one less poisonous snake in our yard.

And, just so I don't induce nightmares with the scary little guy, here are my babies, resting after a jaunt in the hot sun the other day.

Athena, looking regal & a bit snooty.

Homer, being his usually adorable (and needy) self.
Back to homework now! I'm trying to unburden myself from the last throes of my Spring semester. So close....