Thursday, October 2, 2008

Snake Bite

Note:
Our house hold has recently acquired a garter snake. Why? Well, the boys caught it in a field. Actually, the way I look at it, it is not that bad. It is better than a bird which makes a mess; it is better than a rodent which stinks, and better than a dog which is an immense amount of work. A snake is a relatively easy pet. And it is small.


Well....

My five year old daughter came running the other day, her body shivering, but trying to be brave. "Mommy, what happens if the snake bites us? Is it poisonous?" Then her composure began to crack, and her little lip began to tremble. Tears swam in her eyes. "because it bit me two times......., but they were little bites and they don't really hurt."

Poor baby! I tipped her eyes up to meet mine and asked, "Do you think I would really let you play with a snake that is poisonous? The snake is not dangerous. I love you and want to keep you safe. I would not let you play with a poisonous snake ever!"

Relief poured in with two tears sneaking down her face on top of a relieved smile.

Time for a cuddle to let the shivers of remaining fear shudder out of her little body.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

YOU are the brave one...as a pet!!
Wow...

Ours was a West African Puff Adder...
the kids at school keep asking if we can keep the next one....hmmmm

No!

Praying for you...

Rebecca Conduff Aguirre said...

Oooohhhh! Poor thing! She must have been terrified, but so awesome that she knew she could bring her problem to you!

Our most recent pets have been a scorpion, a tarantula, and 5 caterpillars...fortunately, they no longer reside in my house! :) A garter snake sounds much better than scorpions and tarantulas!

Ellie said...

Yeah, the previous choice was a large spider, so I was pretty happy with the snake!

We used to have tarantulas as kids, but I can't imagine one now - eww!

Rebecca Conduff Aguirre said...

Yeah, spiders weren't ever my "thing" and taratulas can either bite or make you itchy...my Mom stepped on one and got stung. My dad shocked it with some wires hooked up to the lawn mower...I think that I would have preferred to suffer with the bite? :o

Also, one night in the jungle, I was laying in bed and was just sure that there was a very large tarantula up in the window. I couldn't sleep, so finally I got up to check it out (quite a process considering the mosquito net, etc.) and it was only a knotted up piece of twine! haha I felt kind of silly...