Friday, July 24, 2009

A sad tale of a black snake in my new tomato bed.



So sad. I discovered an adult black snake twisted in the netting I put around a tomato bed, netting to keep the deer out as long as possible. (The deer always win in the end.) One theory is that the snake crawled in through one little hole and then turned around later and tried to exit through another hole and found himself entangled. Or he came in through one hole, then ate something like a toad, and wasn't able to get back out because of the lump in his gullet. In either case, he was alive when I found him but possibly dying. Flies were gathering. My lovely son Greg did as much cutting of netting as he could do, but Mr. Snake had swelled so much that the netting was tight around his body. I should have taken a shovel and ended his life right there. But I just couldn't. And I didn't ask Greg to do it either. So I lifted him up with a long pole and tossed him into the woods next to the house. Vultures will get him. Maybe something else. I feel very sad about this because I know the snake was good for my garden. And he did no harm. He's creepy of course, but so are slugs. I may try to install some kind of snake guard along all of my fences that involve netting. A huge job, so maybe not. The end.

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