Thursday, June 19, 2008

Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw

I was out by the shed today, cleaning around the doors. The dogs had followed me out and were poking about the woods, John in particular was rooting about the leaf litter with a great deal of enthusiasm. After a bit he pulled back and starting barking at what he had found. I ignored him at first, thinking it was another stupid deer. But it was a different sort of bark, not his usual all out barkapalooza for deer (for some reason John is deeply offended by deer).

I looked over and asked him "what's up boy, did ya find a snake?"

He continued barking and looking over at me so I decided to check it out.

It turned out I was not too far off. It was indeed a snake with the added bonus of the snake eating a toad. To spare the snake phobic out there here is a link to the picture I ultimately took of the snake and toad. So don't blame me if you don't like the picture, it's your own fault if you click on the link.

Anyhoo, I had haul John inside in order to get him to quiet down. I felt bad for the toad, but that's life. I'm just happy it was the nonpoisonous Eastern Garter snake. I found found a dead Copperhead just the other day in front of our neighbor's house. What John found in our woods is far more preferable.

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