The Roomate

Yesterday, I felt my love for animals waver for a minute.

That sounds awful, but let me explain.

I live in the south. Georgia to be exact and near a creek. That equals snakes. Lots and lots of snakes. My property tends to collect copperheads which are aggressive and poisonous. Yay. One year I stepped on 2 of these jerks. It took years off of my life.

Jump ahead to this year...
We have a black snake that has decided to live IN the barn. IN my tack room where I keep my horses food, grooming supplies and stuff I need daily. The only reason I am letting him stay is because I have always heard that black snakes keep the poisonous ones away and so far no copperheads have been seen.

Side note: There is also a rabbit living in the tack room and the snake doesn't bother it. 

In the beginning the snake kept his distance. I would walk into the barn he would slither out until I was done. The room mate agreement was working and we were all happy. Then he started leaving creepy little gifts in my grooming box and on my shelves in the form of his shed skin. Ew. Freaked me out. Chris removed the gifts. And I declared the snake needed to go.

Yesterday I headed into the barn to clean Casper's stall. I was on the phone with my best friend talking about her newest boy issues. I hung up with her and opened the door to the stall and something darted to the right. I darted to the left screaming. I looked over my shoulder to make sure it wasn't chasing me and realized it was the harmless cute bunny and not the snake. I started laughing uncontrollably at myself, freaking out over little bunny foo foo.  I cleaned the stall as fast as I could and got out of the barn. I am talking record time. If it didn't cause heart attacks I would say small scary animals would be great motivators for getting barns cleaned quickly. *Shudder*

As it goes, Chris cleaned the stall today. I didn't tell him I was still a little leary of the beasts we have done there but I conveniently found another chore that I knew he would rather not take on. Tomorrow I go in with a full suit of armor. Snake boots ... jeans ... a helmet. It could get serious.