Rikki Tikki Tavi

My neighbor hollered out to Mike today...."Hey Mike, come take a look at this."  And what was he waving over his head???  A more than 4 foot long black snake. Ahhhhhhhhh!!  My irrational fear of snakes is serious. I CAN NOT deal with snakes. I freak out if I see them and honestly, I freak out just as bad at the thought of them.

Well, it appears we have them in our neighborhood.  Thankfully up to this point, I've not seen one but the neighbor and Mike compare snake notes from time to time and today's included a 4 footer.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Apparently this one was found in his crawl space. I'm not exactly sure what transpired but by the time Mike was on the scene, the neighbor was holding the snake up by the neck (the snake is still alive) and he's letting him dangle to the ground to show that, yes indeed, the snake was over 4 feet long.   For all things that are holy, it is absolutely the BEST thing on this earth that at this very moment in time, I was at the airport with the Monkey dropping off Caren.  If I saw that snake being held up by his neck and sized up for length I would not be the same person right now. I'm telling you. Of course just to torture myself though, I have asked Mike the gory details at least 3 times now just to make sure I'm crystal clear on how this snake discovery went down.

To add to this, a few weeks ago this same neighbor found a baby copperhead in his front yard. This wasn't the first baby copperhead he's found in his yard. They have a 2 1/2 year old. We have the Monkey. I'm freaking out!  Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!  Then a story has since been told that a house a few up the street discovered an entire copperhead family with "tons of babies" that scattered when a wood pile was moved.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!  Is my house on the market yet??? Pretty darn close. At this point, my only hope is snakes don't like to cross streets because all said snake sightings have happened on the other side of the road.   Seriously, do people have mongooses as house pets??? I need one. STAT.