Christian Real Estate Professionals

Snake Charming 101...OR...Snakes Alive...!!!

My 12 year old son, Justin, greets me yesterday after work with the enticing words, "Dad, we have a snake in the house"...! Not being very fond of snakes or snake like critters, I demanded to know more and I demanded to know it quickly...!!  

"Who saw the snake", I ask, demanding details?  

To which he replies, "I and my two friends'...! We were playing outside and saw the long black snake slither into the bilco doors leading down to our basement"...!  

Well then, the snake shouldn't be in the house, unless one of you opened the door at the bottom of the bilco door stairs, right?  

Thank God he answered yes!  

So now, sizing up the situation, I have my son and two witnesses assuring me that the snake went in and has not come out since...! Now we're making progress!  

I get out the phone book and look up the Humane Society of Berks County...they give me the number of 'Animal Rescue'...which happens to be a pager which accepts a telephone number for call back...  

This being not immediate enough a solution to our dilemma, I call my sister and brother in law who happen to live just around the corner from us but are currently on their way home from a shopping spree...however, since they are two of my favorite democrats, and democrats seem to have all the solutions for life's problems these days, I ask their opinion...  

Of course, miles away, they suggest I take charge of the situation, get a broom and a container with a lid, and proceed to handle the snake personally...  

I knew democrats were crazy, but this was further proof...!  

All along, my two sons are badgering me to let them 'capture the snake themselves'...in other words, they are asking me, a responsible and caring parent, to allow them, two 'incapable of snake handling' greenhorns, with no critter control experience whatsoever, to place themselves, whom I dearly love, in jeopardy of being bitten by a snake I've never seen...  

What's wrong with this picture!!!  

Now, lest you think I am a coward and incapable of defending my brood, I would rather face a lion barehanded than a snake...!!!  

Cutting to the chase, my sister and brother in law, Laura and Bill, arrive on the scene and within minutes have the snake identified as a harmless garter snake about 4 foot long, coiled on the top step of the stairwell, and with Laura at a great distance away Bill proceeds to sweep the critter into a small garbage pail, with Justin watching his back, for release into the nearby woods...!!!  

Now all that's left for me to do is figure how to keep this problem from reoccurring again...!!!  

Oh, by the way, if you're wondering where my beloved wife, Benita, was during all this...She stood fearlessly right behind me...way behind me...!!!

 

 

19 comments • Fran 'The Title Man' Gaspari Title Insurance-PA & NJ • May 28 2009 10:00AM