I am presently laughing my head off. Today brings another breed of tree "man" into my yard. This one is the kind that grinds the stumps with big machines. And they are apparently not nearly as macho as the climbers. I just left five of them in my back yard after hearing them scream like little girls. I looked out the window from my desk and saw them scatter. Loving a mystery I ran out to see what the fuss was.
A snake.
Next to the offending tree stump (that they are going to grind down) was a stack of bricks. Nestled and coiled in between the bricks was what had all of these burly men "rattled".
I happen to like snakes. Ever since my big brother handed me a black snake when I was five I thought they were intriguing creatures. But I do understand the need to rid your yard of them if they are a threat. And this one although undefined, was about three feet long. So, as the five men stood around reluctantly poking the snake with a stick, I ran to get a shovel. When I returned they had managed to encourage the thing out of its nest only to slither down the hill toward our shed. I had the shovel at the ready and considered dispatching the thing right there but figured that might be insulting to either their environmental sensibilities, or their macho sensibilities. Who knows. But when I left the scene they all looked like they had seen a monster and were doing heebe jeebe style body language which is what got me laughing so hard before typing this.
The big sissies.
Too bad I didn't get a picture. But it looked like this
It is a common eastern garter snake. Totally harmless.
Wish I could have seen that. Good thing you didn't kill it as it will help keep mice and rats away. Seems as though you have gotten braver since your interaction with the almost dead kitten but then it I guess the shovel helps. HA! HA! This reminded me of the time all the neighbor boys found a snake in one of the front yards and came screaming to me (they were only 12 though) It was a "good" king snake about 5 feet long. I don't know what they expected me to do, the thing was as long as I am tall. I suggested they leave it alone and it went home. Where did we get the idea men were so brave? Wish you had video that would be great on youtube. Well gotta go make cheesecake