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.

First Grass

Do you remember? Age 1 or 18? The chickie girls had their first this morning. Such emotion! Their first guaranteed reaction was Sqwaaaak! What is this stuff? Help, an unknown intruder! Then Ms. B. Rock, the brave mother-type of the foursome, pecked at one of the pieces of grass, or was it a snake? or a worm? or…? It did not fight back. The other girls moved out from behind her to take a closer look. After much maneuvering for position, Heckie pecked at another piece of that intruding grass. Hmmm? Seems like nothing to fear. Then the dance began, joined by Henny and Arriauna. Round and round, back and forth, pecking at and running from, (sing it!) ‘Up to the grass, back to the wall, all join wings and circle wide, grab your partner and do-si-do.’ Toys-R-Us and Santa Claus have never brought as much first time joy! After about an hour, another peek finds all four chickie girls contentedly resting on their roost, looking out the window onto the world of grass.

The New Roost

My chickie girls got their first roost today. It is a dowel braced between opposing sides of their cage. It is about 2 inches off the floor and about 6 inches from the wall of the cage. They were not afraid of it because in hopes of increasing the familiarity factor it had been lying on the floor of their cage for several days. They were accustomed to it laying there, being stepped on and stepped over and pooped on, except when I picked it up and it appeared that ‘the wooden snake was rising in the air.’ SQWAAAAK! As soon it was in place as a roost, Ms. Barred Rock hopped up on it. An hour later all three older sisters were perched on it, peacefully looking out the window into the newly discovered world of the backyard. Yes, the three, all in a row facing the same direction. At the far end of the row was Arriauna Ameracauna, also perched on the roost, but facing the opposition direction. That’s Arriauna, always unique.