Holy Moly!

Okay we are looking for chickens to put in our yard. Sounds ridiculous, not really when you find a coral snakes in your front yard. Yes, I know since we live in the country..and live in Texas, we are prone to critters, but one of the relatives to a cobra...come on...SCARY!! Okay, here is the low down..... gives me the hibby-gibbies just writing about it.....

Chad was on his riding lawnmower and comes running inside yelling my name, so I immediately think he is hurt. Nope, as soon as I run downstairs he says get a cage (being a science teacher you tend to have many laying around everywhere). So he is running out, with me in tote, and he says.... "What is the saying.... "Red and yellow...kill a fellow....Red and black a friend of Jack". Well this little guy was not a friend of ours or Jack's.

Long story short... coral snakes live here in Texas, come out in the day, are very venomous, but have tiny little mouths and not pit vipers like their cousins, so gnaw on their predators / prey to get the toxin in.... gives you time to yank the sucker off and get to the hospital to get anti venom. This little 2 foot snake has the potential to kill an adult. Scary for my Lissy and for Abbie (our little 2lb yorkie). Oh yeah, back to the story...Chad accidentally ran over the snake with the lawnmower and sliced open a part of his gut, so it took a bit for him to die (bitter sweet...being a biologist and all) but if you laid him just right, you could not even see the wound and he looked as scary as he did alive.

So if you live in the hill country....watch out for the red and yellow! Lissy now wears her pink cowboy boots in the yard each time she goes out....he he...I will have to get a shot of that one, it is funny.... even with her bathing suit! Abbie is always supervised on her potty breaks, and we all tend to watch out step more than before.

My immediate thinking was...."I wanna go back to North Carolina". Chad looked at me with eyebrows raised and suggested getting the chickens....