Slayer of Serpents

So we’ve had an unusual fall. First, the mice are back. Pierre was on patrol the other night and sure enough, we heard the scurrying tread of mus musculus (that’s a mouse to you and me) in the laundry room.  He managed to chase it into the kitchen, where it had nowhere to hide from the plastic container we used to scoop it up.  I was delegated the mouse catch and release person, so off into the woods I trudged in the wee hours of the morning to release my stunned visitor. Pierre sat in the window all twitchy-tailed and jittery. I got such a glare from his golden green eyes when I returned to the kitchen.  He kept sniffing the now empty plastic container, clearly miffed that I’d stolen his prize.

We thought nothing then the next evening when Pierre didn’t make an appearance for his evening repast or his nightly round-up of stuffed bird toys, which he loves to carry upstairs and deposit in a line leading from our bedroom door to the bathroom. I thought for sure he’d found another autumnal visitors and I’d spend another evening futilely chasing a frightened critter with an old plastic ice cream container.  I went down the basement steps to clean out his litter box the next morning, thinking nothing of it, flipped on the light, and stopped short.

There was a SNAKE curled upon the basement floor.

Pierre shot out from under the basement stairs with glee, circling the snake and making high, trilling cries of excitement. I called for Hubby and yelled “There’s a snake in the basement!” Both Hubby and my father in law came on the run.  My second yell was “Pierre – NO!” as the cat ran right towards it.

I had no idea if the snake was alive or dead, poisonous or not. At least it was small. It was less than a foot long and about the thickness of a clothesline.

Pierre ran up and poked it with a paw, and by that time I realized it must be dead.  We hurried downstairs and out came the trusty plastic container. First a mouse scoop; now a snake catcher.

We took the picture above of the snake outside to try to identify it. I don’t see a photo of this exact pattern on the Virginia department of fish and wildlife site, but it looks most like a rat snake, a very young one, and friends agree. We found fang marks on its back, the same size and width as Pierre makes on his stuffed bird toys, so Pierre has a new nickname: Slayer of Serpents.

So what does the slayer of serpents do on his day off?

 

Snooze, of course.

There is NEVER a dull moment around here.