9:06 a.m. - 2007-09-29
mom - snake killer
So we found this snake in the garden at work. And I put it in the terrarium in the younger kids classroom. They lost interest after a week except for the unruly chinese boy who bangs on the plastic when he thinks he can get away with it and then because he only speaks chinese, acts like he doesn't know what i'm saying to him, even though I am physically taking his hands off of the plastic and shaking my head and saying "NO. NO!"
My mom said she'd take the snake and have it in her classroom at school. I was kind of sad to part ways with it, but I thought it was bestn - her kids are older and will get a kick out of it and learn something inhe process. Plus, even though I have been digging up worms every couple of days and putting them in the container with the snake (the Internet said he would eat live earthworms), I can't tell if he's eating them as the floor of his terrarium is made of dirt - there might just be 20 worms buried in there somewhere.
Side note - I am sure it is quite a site when I head outside with a shovel and a platic cup, dressed in my work clothes, and return with a cup full of worms and dirt under my fingernails.
He seems more sluggish than when we first got him which makes me think he might be slowly starving. So, for his own safety, I figured I'd turn him over to my mother who would get him a proper cage and real snake food at the pet store. I collected him from the terrarium, the kids said goodbye to the snake and off we went.
I found a large tupperware container, got some leaves and stuff from outside and took him home yesterday. I planned to bring him to my parents this weekend. But when I called my mom on the phone as i was driving home, my mom informs me that she no longer is interested in the snake and has decided to get a lizzard of some type.
Great. Now what do I do. Just let him go in your garden my mom says. But it's kind of chilly outside, I think. I brought him home and he got worse, like more and more sluggish. So this morning, when I found him wet (he had dragged himself through the shallow water bowl I put in there for him) and cold, I was faced with the decision - is he better off out in his natural habitat or has he weakened so much that he will die in the elements? Either option seemed bad. If I keep him and he dies I will feel awful. Plus keeping him would require numerous pet store purchases and some serious research into what the heck else he can eat besides earthworms which do not seem to be his preference. And I don't think Kevin wants a pet snake. But if I set him free is that just a cop out, like oops, sorry Nature, here, you can have my screw-up back. After much internal debate, this morning, I took him outside and set him free near the fish pond. I really hope he makes it. It was pretty cold out there. He's really slow and sluggish - if he can't track down the earthworms I put right in front of his face, how is he going to catch something to eat? Snakes hibernate in the winter - but what if it is too cold already for him to find a good hole to hang out in? And don't they have to eat a bunch before they hibernate? Oh dear. He'll never make it.
