Today, I finally attacked a flower bed in front of the house. It had suckers growing out of the day lily clumps that were three feet tall. As I cleared the area and got a view of the apple tree four feet away I was startled by the sight of a garter snake. It lay all twisted along the roots of the tree. I decided to leave it alone. It hadn’t moved and as I inspected it more closely, I saw it was wounded. He/she/it had a very large laceration across it’s body. Most likely he/she/it tangled with a weed whip used by the lawn service to trim the borders.
I made a fatal mistake and showed the critter to Lovely who immediately wanted me to execute the poor thing. I calmed her by telling her that he/she/it was wounded and probably wouldn’t make it through the night. Later in the day, my grandson came to tell me that he was startled by a snake that crossed his path at the side of the house as he spoke to a friend on the phone. I guess he/she/it isn’t mortally wounded after all.
I’ll have to set a trap to catch this poor reptile and take him ten miles from home to let him out in the wild. I did that earlier this spring. I caught he/she/it] bare handed and put he/she/it in a box. I walked he/she/it a hundred yards into the wetland behind the house where I shook he/she/it out of the box and wished he/she/it good luck on a new life. A month later he/she/it was back in my yard right next to the back door. I never mentioned that to Lovely.
Wish me luck, I think I’ll need it to trap he/she/it, and take a ride to the forest preserve.
Filed under: Garden, Ponds | Tagged: Catch and release., garter snakes, Snake traps | Leave a comment »
