This morning I was on my way to work at the fire tower. Stepping out the front door. I quite like these sliding glass doors because I can see what is outside. This morning it was a tiger snake, just hanging out.
'It's such a magnificent creature!' I said to my sister, as the snake slid away into the thicket of cummock.. 'But fuck! Can they just fuck off from my doorstep?'
The last time a tiger hung out at my front door was a month ago. My front door is north facing and has brick paving... so tiger friendly territory. I squirted the snake with a tomato sauce bottle full of petrol and freaked the poor critter out. Then I went next door and asked the resident snake handler for help. He was into the respectful and kind relocation of reptiles. I just wanted him to kill this one. There was an impasse of communication between the two of us. 'Here's the shovel,' I said, handing him the shovel and then we both said prayers as he took a life.
So this morning, seeing another tiger snake on the path between my front door and the car, I was thinking of my dog and me, and the times when I stumble along that path at night to get something out of the car, headlamp on.
Some people are fine with resident tigers. I'm absolutely not.
Christ, that would freak me out.
ReplyDeleteTotally. I'm jittery for days afterwards. I like the glass sliding doors because tigers do hang out on the warmer side of my house.
DeleteThat's so scary. Is there any sort of deterrent that can be put out there to discourage them?
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer, yes especially scary with dogs or kids around. They have these things called thumpers that emit a vibration that is supposed to deter them. But the local hardware won't sell them because they reckon it doesn't work, and there are photos of thumpers with snakes curled up around them! I do know from personal experience that snakes really hate petrochemicals, which is why the handy squirty bottle is near my door.
DeleteI would be absolutely NOT okay with this. Give ME the darn shovel...
ReplyDeleteA terrible thing to take a life for just hanging about but yeah nah.
DeleteH.I. would not relax if she knew there was a grass snake within 100 yards.
ReplyDeleteThey make me jumpy but they are also beautiful animals. So elegant. The whole biblical sex, death and disaster element is just bouncing around in my brain whenever I see them. We attach so much of our psyche to the snake motif that sometimes it feel impossible to separate the cultural stuff to its actual presence. It has had boggled me since I was a child, seeing the death adder curled up and then the dead milking goats.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that these particular snakes could kill me heightens that fear. I always carry a snake bandage, which would give me six more hours apparently. But tiger snakes are not about to jump out of the bush and attack me like a bear or something. The snake I saw a few days ago was like 'Okay, it's all good. I'm leaving now.'