It's Starting to Feel Like Spring.

The birds are waking me up in the morning, it is light again at the first bus run, the trees are budding, the winter jackets are put away (ok, they are really in a pile by the back door...but no one is wearing them any more) and what's that...a snake dangling from the kitty's mouth? Yep, it must be spring. I didn't believe the Tall Wild One when she calmly stated that the cats were outside playing with a snake...maybe I just didn't want to believe it. But, dang it, I happened to catch something out of the corner of my eye...and sure enough the cats were pouncing around the back yard with something black and wiggly between their paws. When I went out to yell at them (I don't know why I even bothered...they are cats you know) one of them picked it up and looked like he was going to bring it to me (which if I had asked him to do...he would have run the other way or simply looked at me like, "Yeah, right!"). That is when the real screaming began and I almost knocked over the Tall Wild One trying to get back in the house...I may have even closed her out there by mistake. Thank God for little boys. My Shaggy Wild One came to the rescue and used a stick to carry the (now dead...I think) snake to the garbage can out front. I thought that was the last of it...but I couldn't get it out of my mind, or what I thought the feel of it would be, off my skin. I was still thinking about it this morning when I realized that the garbage needed to be taken down to the end of the driveway for pick up. Thank God for big boys. The Big Guy graciously agreed (after taking out the kitchen garbage and leaving the lid of the can propped open) to haul the can down on his way to work. Fast forward to my phone ringing after the Big Guy had left...he forgot about the garbage. So I sucked it up, put on a pair of gloves (some how I was convinced they would protect me) and tip toed around the can looking for any evidence of a slimy (yes I know they aren't really slimy, but come on we are talking about a snake here) legless creature. I tipped the can to get it on it's rollers and proceeded down the driveway...for about three steps. I was sure that if I wasn't watching that the snake would creep over the edge and make a bee line for my arm. I turned around and walked backward (down the lonnggg, steep driveway) keeping my eyes peeled for any movement. Fortunately, I made it with no problems...now I just have to make it to my car and hope that it didn't escape over night to find a nice warm place to take cover.