When people back home ask, “do you live in the city?” I say well, sort-of…  For a person that grew up in a town with two caution lights, I don’t have super high criteria for what in fact is a “city”.  Not that growing up in a small town is bad, because I think it can be very great, it’s just that my perspective of “city” is different from most of my neighbors.

Anyway, we live in the burbs, and oddly enough it seems like we are surrounded by more wildlife than back home.  In our humble little neighborhood we have – alligators (they make the news when they go literally door to door!), coyotes, wild pigs, deer, armadillos (I saw one get hit by a car one evening when I was jogging), etc…

But, my worst and ultimate fear – rodents, started paying visits to our garage – UGH!!!  Then – OUR ATTIC!!!!!  In the name of all that is good, why on Earth did that have to happen?@?!?!?!?!  AND – best the part, it happened when I was home on maternity leave with the new baby.  Crap.

So, I called our pest control people (yes, I already had a service with a company because I thought prevention would spare us this terrible nightmare).  Anyway, I threatened to end our contract with those bozos, because they had not serviced our place in 4 months and now this!  Well, I guess my postpartum hissy fit worked, and a guy came the next day.

He put out traps.  Fortunately, he put several in the garage.  Fast forward several months…  The rodent issue seems to be under control (I don’t want to speak anymore of that horror, so please don’t even bother to ask. I feel a little sick just recalling that nightmare).  Recently however our garage has had that not so fresh smell.  In our haste, we didn’t think too much about it since we dart in and out of there so quickly.  This weekend Bryan, with his tendencies for tidiness, was going through stuff in the garage and found guess what in an old glue trap????  A decomposed SNAKE!!!!!  HOLY COW!!!!!!!!  I would have taken a picture, but poor Bryan was on the verge of vomiting and the thing was so decomposed that not much was left.  From the look of the skin, Bryan thought it might have been a copperhead.  My word, country living indeed 🙂

As the thought of “crap, there was a copperhead snake in my garage” ran through my head, I was next hit with a more horrific thought – “oh no, was the snake going after a rodent and did it escape the jaws of the snake”!!!