Snake in the Egg Box

Addie loves to go out and get eggs. In the beginning I explained to her about snakes but as each day has passed without a snake in the egg box, she’s gotten braver and a little fast to open the egg box lid ahead of me. Yesterday I told her she wasn’t going out there with me if she didn’t follow the rules and let me open the lid and look into the boxes to make sure it was safe before she stuck her hands in there. OK . . she wasn’t happy about it but she agreed.

This morning we went out there. I opened the first egg box lid and there were two eggs. She got those. I opened the second box lid and there were no eggs. I opened the third lid and there was the biggest chicken snake in there I’ve ever seen. Sometimes they’re plain black and don’t scare me quite as badly as when they’re colored like a rattlesnake. I said “Oh, no!” and slammed the lid shut. She wanted to know what was wrong and I said “There’s a snake in there! Let’s go find Grumps!”

We found him and Addie was standing up in her swing making sure it couldn’t get to her while he got it out of the coop. It was big and they are hard to get out if they can wrap around something. Vince got him out and let him go in the woods. He can catch all the mice he wants but if I catch another snake in the coop . . he may not be so lucky.

I wonder if Addie is going to want to check for eggs this afternoon or if she’ll just let me do it from now on.