Snake Adventure!

WARNING: Snake Post! Betty and Marci, you should not be reading this. :) You will never come visit us again.

So this morning, there was a knock on the door and when I answered it was the meter reader. He wanted to inform me that he discovered a nest of snake eggs in the ground. Blech! We have seen a 3 foot long black snake in our yard several times and we were never very concerned. Black snakes help keep the rodents and cockroaches under control, after all. But an entire nest of eggs? No thanks. I called Animal Control but apparently they do not deal with snakes. I called a company that removes snakes and they said they would charge $175. What?! I even called a local reptile store who was interested in having the eggs, but they wanted us to deliver them to the store. Riiiiight.

In the end, our adventurous neighbors came to the rescue. Kay said she was willing to retrieve the eggs and move them to a nearby retention pond. Her high school aged daughter, Kayla, loves all animals and wanted to handle everything.

Ready to take a peak? Here are the eggs under the concrete "lid" by the meter. There were about 15 eggs total.

Fearless Kayla!

She made sure to remove the eggs very slowly and carefully. Apparently it will kill the baby snake inside if the eggs get moved around too much.

A few of the eggs started oozing some goo, and we decided that the snakes inside those shells were likely dead. I really wanted to know what was inside the shell -- could they be turtle eggs? -- so Kayla agreed to carefully open the shell on one of the eggs. A live baby snake emerged!

It seemed just fine and had a beautiful pattern on its skin. Kay said that it would change to solid black in time and that they're born with varied coloring for camouflage. 

Goodbye, snake baby! We hope you find a nice home somewhere else.