Ivy catches a snake

This photo does not do the snake justice. He is much more 'snake' and much less 'pile of worms'.

This morning Ivy, the beautiful, blue-eyed, mostly Siamese cat brought me a very long snake. She had her mouth around it and was dragging its curled up, but very alive body. When I approached her, [this occurred in the backyard, not the living room] she dropped the snake. I scooped him up in an empty flowerpot so I could take him to a better spot for a photo. The photo above is of a pile of snake freshly dumped out of the flowerpot. As I tried to stretch him out a bit to show his yellow striped back and to gauge his length, he straightened, said ‘Thanks for your help’ and did a few fast ‘S’ wiggles and was off the sidewalk and into the flower bed. Had I been fast enough and brave enough I could have grabbed him. Instead, I was trying to stop him with a stick and my foot. The camera in my hand was my last thought until it was too late. You’ll have to trust me that he was four feet, well, maybe, three feet long. He did have a lovely yellow stripe down the full many feet of his back. He looks much like another snake who has lived in the garden for three years and whom I saw today. He is about two feet long and is identified by his short abrupt tail. They each will have private stone houses for weather and cat protection.

Cat Proofing the Chick Room

Cat Proofing the Chick Room

How to protect the chicks from Ivy, the curious Siamese-cross ? …looked for an old window screen to place on top of their box, but it interfered with the lamp and thermometer. The box is a large white plastic storage box. No firm plan for older, taller chicks. Also I could imagine Ivy cleverly tipping the screen in the middle of the night.

Brilliant idea! I will move Ivy’s food, water and litter box up to the 2^nd floor landing. It will be safe and private for her. Dreamer, the 10-year old Pomeranian will not climb the stairs to get to the cat food, not because he doesn’t want it, but because I scared him about stairs once when he was a pup. I worked. Now he’s getting old and doesn’t even like to go down the stairs.

Then I can have the chicks in the back bedroom that has been a combination storeroom, cat feeding room, pet food storage, food drier, etc room. The door doesn’t latch cleanly which is nothing unusual in this 1888-built old house. First I’ll work on the hole in doorfacing that receives the latch-thingy. If necessary I will put a sliding barrel latch on it.