Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Sharon Bryant

June 19, 2007

Out Of The Corner Of My Eye

Sharon Bryant

I love to watch animals play. I get so much enjoyment from our three dogs playing tag, swimming in their little kid's pool, chasing butterflies, things like that.

We have two large bird feeders and mornings I will sit on my porch and watch different species eat their morning breakfast.

We have cows in the big field across from us, and I laugh when I see a little calf follow its mother when she walks around.

Everywhere we look, there is something to smile about when watching animals.

Unless.........

We have a large porch on our house. There are large pine trees all around the back side of our place. Tonight hubby and I were eating our supper on the porch on our picnic table. A daily ritual is to watch our rooster eyeball two different branches of pine trees, trying to decide which one he wants to use to fly up into the tree. He always flies before the sun goes down. I am told they have poor eyesight when it starts to gets dusk. So each day this time of the year, the rooster flies into the tree around 6:15. We were eating when we saw him do his prancing and dancing to decide which branch to get on. He flew up, let out his cock-a-doodle-doo to let the whole neighborhood know he's going to get ready for bed.

Suddenly the rooster flew down to the ground. Something we've never seen him do before. He began this running around, acting nothing like he does any other time. We are in the drought area and it had rained for 15 minutes so my husband said he was probably going to try and find some worms. I didn't think that was it because the sky was darker and the rooster never waits that long to fly in the tree.

I was watching him when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a movement. It came from the three foot bathroom window which has a jealousy type window. Each year for fifteen years since we've lived here, two birds come in spring and build nests on both sides of the window. We've watched them as they set on their eggs, hatch the eggs and then tend to their babies until they get flying lessons telling them it's time to spread their wings and fly.

This year was no different.

One bird hatched her eggs already and they have left the nest. But the second bird had four babies in the nest and just yesterday I watched in the window as she fed them. They are just getting their little feathers now.

When my eye caught movement, I thought it was the mother bird at first. I didn't say anything to my husband since his back was to the window. I turned my head and saw something stick out from the window ledge. It didn't look right. I then told hubby that something was by the birds nest and it was too large to be the mama bird. He turned and said, "It's just the knob to crank the window." He turned back to his plate, I looked at the window and again, something moved that was too large for a bird. I told him it was NOT the window handle, that something was moving. He turned again and then he saw movement. He got up from the table, walked to the end of the porch, closer to the window as I was getting up from the table.

"You're not going to like this," he said. I got closer and said, "It's a mouse." "Not a mouse he said."

"Oh no, it's a stinking bat," I said. "It's not a bat either," he said.

Right then it moved and I saw it stick its head out. A baby bird was in its mouth.

"SNAKE!" I screamed. "Oh my God, there's a snake in our window," I yelled.

My husband ran to get the ladder. My son came running when I called him, with a machete knife he keeps in the house for situations like this, he told me. My daughter-in-law wanted to help any way she could. And I stood frozen, watching that snake try and eat that little bird. It made me sick.

My husband got a rake, a shovel, a flashlight, and told me to stand back. Standing back was not a problem. He reached up with the rake and tried to make the snake drop the bird. It did. But when it dropped it, a live baby fell out of the nest. My daughter-in-law scooped that little thing up and held it in her hand. I told her there were four babies yesterday in the nest. Today, there was only two when we saw the snake.

The snake became vicious when the bird dropped from its mouth. It struck out at my husband. I was yelling, "Get off the ladder, let me call animal control," and he's yelling back, I'll get that sucker and kill it."

"Go get your gun," I said. "WHAT?" he asked. I'd blow a hole through the window if I tried to shoot at the snake," he said.

"No, shoot it when you get it down off the window ledge," I said.

My son informed me that he was going to chop it in half with his knife when it dropped from the window.

The snake fought. It was coiled, it struck. It was gnarled up, it struck. My husband was trying to knock it down. I have a large pair of clippers I use to take down weeds and good size limbs. I grabbed those and said, "Here, cut that sucker in half."

My husband looked at me like I was nuts and said, "The handles are too short."

I knew that, but well you know, men like to show we women how tough they are and I thought that would be wonderful if he could cut him in half. If it were me on that ladder, I'd want something with a ten foot handle. My clippers only have about an eighteen inch handle.

I ran inside the house and ran to the bathroom window to see the snake crawling up my window. I saw the rake touch him and I saw him strike again at my husband. I ran back out on the porch and told him again to get his gun.

His gun is a replica of an old Colt 44. It has to be loaded with powder and the little balls. He said by the time he got the gun loaded, the snake could get off and we'd not know where it went.

"I'm calling animal control," I said. "No you're not," he said, "I'm going to get this stinking snake."

There we were, I standing on the porch watching taking pictures with my digital. My neighbor who is 80 was standing by me saying, "I hate snakes." My son had his knife ready, and my daughter-in-law was holding the only remaining little bird, and there hubby was on the ladder, with the rake trying to get the snake tangled up in it to get him down. He grabbed the snake, and it started to crawl through the rake "teeth" and I screamed, "Drop it." It struck fast, several times. I saw the tail. We all did. It didn't have any rattles.

Suddenly hubby hooked it and it's head got caught, and he slung it down to the ground. Quicker than you could blink an eye, faster than a machete can be swung, that snake slithered through the little opening where our air conditioner hose comes out from under the house.

"Oh, that's wonderful, " I said. "Now I'll be up all night, what if it gets in the duct work and comes into the house through a vent," I said. "It won't come near the vent, it's too cold, they won't go where it's cold," hubby said.

A few minutes ago my friend down the road called. "How was your weekend," she said. I replied, "Why don't you ask me how has my last four hours been like." I then told her what happened.

Our news has been warning us in this drought, snakes are looking for water and there have been several incidences of them getting into homes. Just this past weekend, a man was bitten where I work by a copperhead. Within minutes, he became violently ill.

Instead of getting someone to get him a park ranger, he picked up his cell phone and called his wife. "I just got bit by a snake at the park," he said. "Do you think I need to go to the hospital?" he asked his wife. Precious seconds lost in that phone call.

Instead of sending someone to the office which was not that far, he walked, causing the venom to move in his blood stream quicker.

He collapsed right near me on a picnic table. I saw the ambulance folks remove his shoes. By this time, the man was getting delirious and did not know his name. They got him in the ambulance quickly and sped away to the hospital.

I am a nervous wreck tonight knowing that snake went under my house. I went around and was closing vents when my husband asked what I was doing. I just looked at him and he replied, "We'll bake in this heat if you close the vents off."

"So we'll bake," I said. "I can't sleep with that thing under the house," I told him.

I have no idea if I'll sit up all night or not. Maybe I'll play pogo until my eyes droop. I just know I feel very uncomfortable tonight.

We also think the rooster saw the snake in the tree, and that's why he came back down after he'd went up for the evening.

We think the snake crawled out on a long limb, got onto our roof and crawled over to the window near the bathroom. Perhaps he saw the baby birds in the nest.

Tonight, I'm watching out of the corner of my eye for any movement in my house.

Sharon Bryant

1946@bellsouth.net