The Not So Empty Nest

This one's for you, Babette!

Well, what started out as a "castle" all to ourselves is now becoming a popular hangout for tenants of another kind. The other night Molly started barking outside on our patio. She's 12 years old now and her eyesight is failing, but I think she still has that hunting instinct in her. Well, sure enough, there was a critter on the patio in a very small space between a storage bin and our house. It turned out to be a very small baby possum. Now if you know anything about possums, you know they are nasty animals. They have sharp claws and mean dispositions when cornered. Well, this one already learned from momma that you snarl and show teeth when someone is shining a flashlight in your face. So we did the right thing (or should I say, Bob did after much prompting from me) and left the little baby alone. He was gone by morning. I just wonder where his momma was... has to be around somewhere. Okay, then yesterday, Bob and I are coming back from one of our trips to Home Depot (we really need to own stock in that company!), and we are driving into our cul-de-sac and see this long snake in the road. Bob asks "Is it alive?" I reply, "Yes, it's sticking it's head up. Drive over it!!" So he turns the car around and attempts to drive over the snake. (I've got my ears covered, like that's going to help.) Bob misses the snake. (You may harass him later.) The snake was quick and slithers up into our neighbor's flower bed. Now we have to kill the snake, I say. Our neighbors are young; she's cute. They're on their honeymoon! She would not like to find a snake when she gets back. See it's the Good Samaritan thing. So Bob goes and gets the shovel and starts poking around in the flower bed full of monkey grass. I stand about 20 feet away. But we can hear the snake making a noise. (Did you know they make noises when cornered?) Can't see it, but we can hear it. All of a sudden it slithers out. Stupid snake. Bob is pretty good with a shovel. After his kill, Bob tells me to go get the camera. I'm thinking, now I've got something to put on my blog. Bob the snake killer. My hero!