Snake?!!!

So....... last night we had just prayed, and are just serving up our tacos when we hear "ding-dong, ding-dong, BAM BAM BAM." We are all "what the heck?" Rod answers the door and we hear a kid say something about a big black snake in the yard. Rod sort of ho-hums "okay" and goes to check it out. 10 seconds later he us running past the window and we hear "Let me get my shovel." Becca, Nick, and I look at each other and simultaneously rise from the table and run for the door. I did have the sense to grab my camera. We were not going to miss this!

So we see that there IS a big black snake! It has yellow bands around it with little flecks of red or pink, and is actually in the neighbor's yard, right next to where Rod parks his car on a parking strip that separates our yard from the neighbor's. The kids have a hose and are spraying the snake. The mom is quite hysterical. The snake is slithering along the cinder block wall toward their house. Rod starts chopping at the snake with his shovel, keeping his distance while doing so.

He injured it enought that he could move it away from the wall. He then succeeded in severing the poor snake's head. It was pretty gross.

I think it was about 5-6 feet long - bigger than any of the snakes we have seen on our hikes! I looked it up on the internet and found a perfect match under "Arizona snakes." It was a Long-nosed snake, non-venomous and common to Maricopa County. For more information here is a link: http://www.reptilesofaz.org/Snakes-Subpages/h-r-lecontei.html The one here is just like the bottom pictured snake on the link, in Maricopa County, which is where we live. I just wonder where this poor creature has been holed up in our neighborhood, and if it has friends!

Nick held open a bag so Rod could throw the corpse in the trash. He does look a little grossed out. We returned to our dinner. Becca stated, "I'm not hungry now." We were all pretty animated after that and had some lively conversation during dinner. Snake taco, anyone??