Watch out!

So last week I took Miss Tessa for her check up at the adoption clinic. Poor little thing tried to be a trooper, but it was just too much, especially when the needle came out. They were very good, and just couldn’t get enough of little missy. Do I even need to say I am one proud mama! They are testing for a number of things, but most importantly, we want to see what if any shots we will need to re-do. I even got to collect poop for a few days! I have not heard back yet, but the results should start coming in soon. She weighed over 20 pounds, and is 30 inches long. I can’t get over how big she is. I never imagined that she would be bigger than our other two girls. We couldn’t turn them around in their car seats until they were at least 18 months old. Although the doctor said we could (he did stress not to push it) I'll keep her facing the back until I have no other choice. She's fine with it, she faces the girls in the back seat, so I'm in no hurry.

Anyway, getting around to the actual topic of this post; since the clinic was a good hour and 1/2 drive from our house, and seeing how I DID NOT want to take the other girls, I decided to go and stay at my parents house for a few days, and that way my mom could watch the big girls while me and little missy went for the appointment. So, to give you a clear picture, my parents live in the country. They have a good amount of land around the house, and the girls love to go exploring. Well, my parents retired this past fall, and since they stay at home a good bit more now, they have taken up walking down their driveway (they have a pretty long driveway) in the mornings for exercise. Well, they had told us that recently they have seen some snakes. Keep in mind they have lived there for almost 20 years, and I lived there for about 8 years before I got married, during which time we never saw snakes. Hardly ever anyway, I saw one right after we moved there, and it was only a little green snake that caught a frog.

So back to the story. The girls wanted to go walking the first night we were there, so we headed out. I told them to stay right with us, because Nana and Grandpa E had seen some snakes, so they did stay pretty close. They did not run way up ahead like we usually let them. About half way down the driveway my step father yells out "snake" and we freeze. I actually did not even see it at first because it blended in so well with the gravel and dirt. When I did see it, Lily was standing about a foot or two away from it. I have never been that afraid for my children's safety like I was then. I told her to come over by me, and she did not even see it at first either. It was not a very big snake, probably a couple of feet long, no more than three. And it was being perfectly still, their dog even almost stepped on the thing and it didn't move. We stood there for a few minutes debating what to do. None of us knew what kind it was, if it was poisonous or not. I figured if we all walked back to the house it would slither off into the woods, and would not be there for my step dad to get back with a gun. So, he took the two big girls to the house, told them to stay there, and got his gun. In the mean time, my mom and I stayed to watch the snake with Tessa. It would start to move and we would pick up a rock and chunk it at it, which made him stay still for a few minutes. By the time grandpa got back with the gun, the thing was almost to the edge of the woods. He only had to shoot once. Blew it's head almost off (sorry if that is too graphic for you) and now we were relieved. But, we still didn't know what kind of snake it was, so we left it there (wasn't going anywhere soon) went back to the house got our cameras, got in the car (too freakin hot) and went back down to take pictures. He kept saying that he would really feel back to have killed it, if it ended up not being poisonous. Well, later that night I went to go look up snakes in Alabama on the computer. I looked through the images, and saw one that looked like ours did. When I clicked on the picture to enlarge it, my mom saw the heading first.

Copperhead.

So it was poisonous after all.

Since this fun little adventure, I have been doing some homework, and have a few tips for anybody interested in learning how to tell a poisonous snake from a non poisonous one.

The head of a poisonous snake is diamond shaped. Meaning it is noticeably wider that the body. The only exception to this is the Coral snake.

Their eyes: Poisonous snakes have cat shaped pupils, non poisonous have round pupils.

Most poisonous snakes have little indentions (or pits) between their nose and eyes. This is to seek out prey. That is why they are also referred to as pit vipers.

After studying many, many photos. I think I could tell what kind of snake it is (poisonous anyway) if I ever run across one again.

And I can not stress enough at how well they blend in to their surroundings!

So for all of you who live in the wilderness, or who just may have woods nearby. The snakes are out this year for sure!

Here are some photos of the one we got, I tried to cut out any yucky parts, but there may be some, sorry to anybody with a weak stomach. They're not that bad!

And just for funzies, the girls loved playing with Grandpa E's hat!