Pre-Dentist Drama

     Kelsey had a dentist appointment yesterday at 11:00.  So a little after 10:30 we all headed out to the car.  I buckled Nathan in and Kelsey buckled herself in. (We were leaving a little early because we were dropping Nathan off at my parents' house and because Kelsey was just dying to leave!)  As I was about to get into my seat, I noticed that the cat was playing around with a huge tarp that was on the garage floor.  Daren had brought it in a week or so earlier when the wind had blown it off the hay and into the corner of the yard.  Not wanting to lose it, Daren brought it into the garage.  But since it was so big, he needed my help to fold it and we pretty much just forgot about it.  Since the cat seemed to be very interested in the tarp, I figured she had cornered something in it.  I have different feelings about the things she corners.  I don't want her to kill birds really.  There are some adorable Mojave ground squirrels (they look just like chipmunks except with a little bit longer tails) that like to sneak food from her cat dish.  I like the chipmunks.  I once saved a baby chipmunk from her-I still need to blog about it and post the adorable picture.  If it's a mouse or kangaroo rat, I just turn the other way.  I don't want to watch her take it out, but I don't want it living near my house either.
     Well, I decided to see what Rosey was playing with.  I was almost certain it was a mouse of some sort and I thought I'd help her get it out of the tarp so she could finish it off.  I just started flapping it up a bit from one edge but nothing was scrambling out.  So I finally gave it a big lift and whooshed it all the way off the ground only to find a snake underneath!  After screaming and jumping into the car and backing out of the garage, I realized I'd better find out a little more information before taking off to the dentist.  After all, my new little baby chicks are living out in the garage right now. (Well, they were!  At this moment they are stinking up my house but they will be back in the garage by tomorrow.)  I thought I'd better find out if the snake was alive or not before leaving it in the garage with my babies.
     The car was now backed out of the garage so I got out and looked around for something to stand on.  I put Rosey in the little dog cage so she couldn't interfere.  I finally decided to stand on the bucket with the chicks' food and I grabbed a long piece of wood and started to lift up the tarp.  The snake wasn't in the same spot anymore but as I lifted the tarp, all of a sudden a mouse ran out of it.  I was thinking, "How many animals does she have cornered in there?"  I then moved it farther and found a very alive, small to medium-sized snake.  At that moment I decided the tarp had to go once and for all and I flung it completely out of the garage.  It is obviously a safe haven for creatures that don't belong in my garage.  I realized at that point that I hadn't even thought about whether or not the snake was poisonous.  Luckily for me, it was not.  It was also not aggressive.  If anything, it wanted to get away.  I didn't particularly want to shoo it out of the garage, even with the stick, because I was afraid I would make it mad.  And the bucket I was standing on (while wearing shorts and sandals) wasn't tall enough to get away from it if it did decide to come for me.  It looked like a harmless gopher snake so I decided to just ignore it and hope that it would leave the garage on it's own while I went to the dentist.
     I moved the chicks into the small dog cage and brought them into the house.  I put Rosey out of the garage and left the garage door open just a crack (big enough for the snake but too small for Rosey).  When I got home, the snake was nowhere to be seen.  Unfortunately, the mouse was.  I put Rosey back in the garage.  I still haven't seen the snake or it's body so I assume it made it out safely.  I remembered afterwards that Rosey had caught and killed a snake just a couple of days earlier.  The girls had seen her carrying around the poor decapitated creature.  So I don't know why it didn't dawn on me earlier that a snake was a possible critter to find under the tarp.  It certainly brought a lot of excitement to my nerves for the day.
     And, of course, a lovely cell phone photo to go with my post. :)  The 7-Up bottle isn't there intentionally but I was glad it was by the snake so you can get an idea of it's size.