By Kent Taylor
Late last summer, wife Laura and I were watching TV one evening. She was in her favorite chair with her iPad, scrolling, relaxing after teaching high school music all day. I think the Rangers were playing. We are baseball people. The next thing I knew, I heard a strange, gasping sound coming from her direction and looked over just in time to see a rather active garter snake, writhing and wiggling its way off Laura’s lap and onto the floor. This was followed by abrupt motions, sounds of hyper-ventilation and shrieks of disbelief. “Frank just dropped a snake in my lap!” she screamed.
Frank is a Chiweenie, by the way, a Chihuahua/Dachshund mix and weighing maybe 8 pounds dripping wet. He is a digger, a burrower. To say he loves to hunt for lizards, mice and snakes would be an understatement. Frank has presented us with trophies before but usually not live ones. So amidst all the calamity, there was Frank, wagging his tail proudly having earned his keep, so to speak, with this latest catch. Laura, in particular, was not impressed although she did manage a meager, “Good boy, Frank” as he stood there, delighted.
You’re probably wondering, “What happened to the snake?” Well, thankfully it was content to hang out under the chair until we swept it up into a plastic box and relocated it to the front yard bushes, away from Frank’s pursuit. Frank seemed happy with the whole thing, Laura, not so much.
In your travels and “touches” with Nature this year, I wish you well. Even more, I look forward to seeing and hearing what you’ve found, or perhaps what has fallen in your lap. See you in September.