NOT a Friend of Jack

Bella Strikes Again

So Bella was barking incessantly tonight. (Unfortunately, not that uncommon) - but she was doing it right outside the window so I looked out to see what the fuss was about. I saw something weird in the grass. It looked like a sausage link. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was, so I got a flashlight and shed some light on the subject ... and then I freaked out. As I inspected the serpent, I recited the little rhyme that lets you know if you are dealing with a poisonous coral snake or a harmless other snake:

Red on Black, Friend of Jack ...

Red on Yellow, Kill a Fellow.

Oh yeah. It was a coral snake. And Bella was playing with the head. I wasn't about to go outside with that thing -- bifurcated or not. So what did I do? I called my mom (as if she could come through the phone and take care of it for me). She told me to just go outside with a shovel and get rid of it. (duh.) PSHAW. Instead I called my neighbor to come get rid of it for me. I've had to call him to get rid of a number of Bella's kills. Blek. Anyway - the neighbors, Michael and Kristen, came over and saved the day. Michael was WAY too excited about examining the dead carcass. He put it in a ziploc and kept squishing it. It was still wriggling around even though it was missing its head. Finally, Michael realized that it had ANOTHER snake in its stomach so he pulled the eaten snake out of the coral snake. How gross is that? Boys are so weird. And so is Bella.

OY.