Written by This morning we had our sliding glass doors open so the twins could play inside and out. We do this often, when it’s mild enough, allowing the twins to play outside on the deck, and run in and out. This time of year there’s no real bug problem even with the screen doors open. Today, however, presented a different problem though.
While I was focused on Theodore and Jacqueline, playing with them, I hadn’t noticed the cat coming and going through the open doors. Our two-year old twins were playing in one corner of the play area. We were laughing and carrying on when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. We all know how quickly the mind can shoot a series of thoughts through our brains in an instant. Well my first thought was that something doesn’t look quite right. Then as I took an instant subconscious inventory of our toys, I knew we didn’t have anything that fit the fleeting image I had seen out of the corner of my eye. So, as I did a double-take, the object at the edge of my sight came into clear view. There on the floor, right near Theodore’s bare feet, was a Common Garter Snake. Our cat, Demetrius, had brought the snake into the house.
I yanked Theodore out of the play area. As a man shouldn’t, I didn’t scream. I made sure the snake wasn’t going anywhere. It stayed pretty still as the cat batted at it a few times. Our cat has no front claws so this was a game of ‘bat the snake’. The snake didn’t seem overly impressed by the whole thing. I quickly put on some gloves, grabbed the snake by the tail, and put it back out in the yard. The snake seemed a bit traumatized, but it slowly slithered away.
I closed the sliding doors after coming back inside. The twins were excited by the events that had just happened. For the next hour, every crumb, every hair, every little thing that didn’t look quite right around the house, was a snake. They were yelling, “Snake! Snake! Snake!” at everything. It was pretty funny. Even after their naps, they were talking about the snake, and looking for the snake on the deck and out back. All in all, it was just another twin adventure. I am glad this was nothing serious.
No animals were harmed in the writing of this piece.