The Great Snake Attack!
I remember it well, the details are burned into my brain like it was just this morning. You see…It was in March of last year that my wife, Patria, and I were preparing to work in the backyard. It was a beautiful sunny warm day here in West-central Florida. I know that a lot of you in other parts of the country, March is freezing, but not so much here where we live.
As soon as we went out to the area next to the garage first we had to that had to rake up the thick layer of leaves, weeds, and palm shoots, etc. It was right then that I saw it. It was maybe 3-4 feet away from us, just kind of hanging out.
Right in front of us, was a typical, harmless, Florida Black Racer Snake, it was maybe three feet long.
I pointed to it, …….. and before I could get the words out of my mouth,…… “Look it’s a black racer” ……. my wife, Patria, who only a fraction of a second before was right behind me…… was already long gone.
She had already sprinted the forty feet to the back gate, through the back door, and all the way through the house, all the way to the front porch. This was all before I could even turn around or react.
The totally harmless common Florida snake obviously uninterested in my wife’s distress casually turned around and slowly slithered off, and who could blame it with all the commotion.
Laughung to myself I walked to the house opened the door and called Patria, eventually, I found her on the front porch. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Baby, come on out, it’s just a harmless black racer.
Patria: I am not going outside anywhere where there is a doggone snake.
Me: It’s just a black racer it’s not poisonous and won’t bite.
Patria: How do you know it’s not a water moccasin?
Me: It’s not a water moccasin, it’s just a harmless garden snake, and besides it’s gone now.
Patria: All Snakes bite.
Me: Not these. they don’t have any fangs.
Patria: It will bite if it’s scared.
Me: What do you think it’s going to do? Go out of its way to attack you?
Patria: It might. You never know.
Me: It won’t. It’s perfectly safe now.
Patria: How do you know it’s gone?
Me: I saw it go away, it headed out into the side yard, come on out.
Anyway, this conversation went on for a few minutes, but she eventually agreed to come back out. I once again assured her that the snake was long gone and everything is perfectly safe.
Patria told me that she would know because she would smell it. Evidently, snakes have a particular smell, something that’s a cross between; watermelon and fish.
Who knew. So, if you’re ever outside and you smell something that’s what can only be described as a cross between fish and watermelon, …..then……… RUN.
Anyway, the snake never came back, and we completed our project with no further incident.
Life is Good.
By the way, the snake looked something like this..
Southern Black Racer
In the end, we both survived, and lived to talk about it.
As Always,
I Am….
Tom Dye, The Safety Guy
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Thank you for reading.
