Another Snake Tale

Remember when I posted my snake tales here?  Well I need to add another one.

Last night my husband, kids and I went to the movies.  We were late getting home because we dropped son number two off at a friend's house to spend the night.  We finally pulled into the driveway around 11:30 p.m.  My youngest son (number 4)  was the first one out of the car and was bounding up the walk, my daughter not far behind him.  Suddenly she screamed, and son number 4 jumped back into the yard.  He had almost stepped on a super long copperhead that was stretched across the brick walk.  But it wasn't really a super long copperhead -- it was two copperheads in the act of mating!!!  They mate back to back, so the heads are on either end (in effect, a two-headed snake).  This would have been interesting to observe -- a highly unusual activity to be seen by the average human -- EXCEPT it was in the middle of my little walkway.  It's surprising to me that they would mate in such an unprotected area, with the porch light shining down on them.  Any sympathy for their situation was mitigated by thoughts of the cost of an emergency room visit.

Copperhead love

Each copperhead was around three feet long.  My husband kept an eye on them while I ran to the garage to find a weapon.  (I did not forget to yell out, "Take a picture!") Unfortunately, our hoe -- the best weapon for snake-killing -- and our shovel were out in the garden, and he had to attempt execution with some heavy posthole diggers.  After much effort on my husband's part (with the rest of us screaming shrill encouragement), one snake is now dead in the front yard.  I am very disappointed (and more than a little alarmed) to report to you that the other snake slithered away into the bushes.    My husband thinks he -- or worse, she -- was wounded, but we're not sure.  Now we are left with an unpleasant uncertainty of its fate.

Here I was thinking maybe we had skipped snake sightings this year.  WRONG!!  It is crazy how many copperheads we've seen, and this is with our two dogs, two sheep, and my neighbor's feral cat patrolling our yard.  Today I am going to the hardware store for snake repellent and I am buying an extra hoe just for occasions like this.