Tragedy

 

I was wanting to do a post about Saturday’s ACTHA ride, but first I have to do a post about something terrible and sad that happened here today.

One of our sweet, little chicks was slaughtered by a Bull Snake that got into our garage. I had no idea that a snake would be able to slither into our enclosed 3-car garage, slink it’s way onto the top of a folding table in the center of the garage, and sneak stealthily into the chick brooder.

I also wrongly believed the chicks were old enough and big enough to avoid a snake attack. I was wrong.

After I fed all the animals in the barn this morning, I came back down to prepare my own breakfast. I usually refill the feeder and the waterer for the chicks after I eat my breakfast, but something told me to go check on them and I even heard a strange cheeping going on…not the normal, happy peeping. But being that I was still tired, sore and hungry from yesterday‘s ACTHA CTC yesterday, I just assumed they were ok. I’m so mad at myself for ignoring my gut instinct!

A little while ago, about an hour after I finished my breakfast, Jen and I went out to the garage to take care of the chicks. I noticed that the chicks were all bunched up in the corner of their brooder and looked scared. But I lifted up the cover and reached into the brooder and picked up the waterer, just like I always do.

And as I was walking away to refill it, Jen screamed “Snake!”

My first thought was that there was a snake on the floor of the garage. Made sense to my tired brain anyway. Where else could a snake be, right?

(I took this photo last week. This little bullsnake was right outside our back door and had managed to slither up some rakes and shovels)

But no. Jen said the snake was in the brooder and was trying to eat a chick. *GASP*

**WARNING: GRAPHIC SNAKE PHOTO BELOW!

######################

######################

######################

######################

######################

(And no, I didn’t use zoom to take this photo. The snake was too focused on it’s possible meal that he didn’t care about me at all)

Right away I remembered I had just had my hand in there, mindlessly reaching for the waterer. *shudder*

I turned back to the brooder and breathed an uneasy sigh of relief to find out that it wasn’t a rattlesnake, like Fantastyk Voyager (click link for that post) discovered under a pile of hay in her barn and posted about a couple days ago.

*GAH* My barn is only about 200 ft away from her barn!

So, I’ve been extra cautious when working in my barn this week, worrying about finding a snake.

And instead I find one in my garage, in my chick brooder, attempting to devour one of my dear sweet biddies!

Shame on him! I was so angry! The greedy snake had no hope of devouring our helpless chickie. It had obviously been trying for over an hour, but the chick was just too big for him to swallow. What a waste of life when there are plenty of mice and small lizards to eat outside!

What is also very frustrating about this situation is that we believe this was the same bull snake we had allowed to live under our grill platform in our courtyard at the back of the house……only about 15 feet from our garage’s back door. We’ve always liked bull snakes because they keep the mice population down and are the only creature around here that will attack and eat a rattlesnake.

So between feeling anger, frustration, sadness, and a primal fear of snakes, I put on my big girl panties, took a shovel and scooped him and his ill-fated chick meal, that he refused to give up on, into the shovel and dumped him into an old cooler, and then had Jax slam the lid down and lock it shut. Then we drove across the road from our neighborhood, into the same empty field that Fantastyk Voyager and her son had relocated their rattlesnake last week, and we opened the cooler and released the confused bullsnake, which had finally released it’s hoped for free meal.

If this snake thing continues, I’m worried that the neighbors and the folks who drive by, might start to wonder what in the heck we’re dumping in that field.