Not My Idea of a Good Morning. . .

I am a morning person.  My alarm goes off, and, even if I hit snooze, I rarely ever fall back to sleep.  Well, one day last week was the exception.  I hit the snooze button and knew that I would have no trouble falling back into a deep slumber.  The puppies had other ideas.

I have two dogs:  Colby, my black, 7-yr-old miniature poodle, and Bella Brooke, my black, 2-yr-old pomapoo (pomeranian poodle).  Additionally, we are foster parenting an almost 9-wk-old yorkie.  Her name is Charley and she will be united with her new Mommy (my little brother Levi's wonderful girlfriend, Simone) this Friday evening.  Charley is a gift from Levi to Simone.  Conflicting schedules prevented them from picking her up when she was ready, so Woody and I have been watching her for the last three weeks.  Let me tell you, nothing puts a new marriage through early ups and downs like a puppy!

So, back to my original story. . .  As I made the rounds to gather up all three dogs and take them outside, I step out onto the patio, walk Charlie over to the grass, and set her down.  I look back and see Colby playing with a worm on the patio.  Now, normally this thought process I'm about to explain wouldn't be in slow motion, but on this particular morning, I was not working at full steam.  As I look at the worm Colby is playing with, I think "it hasn't rained in forever, why is there a worm on the patio?"  A few more seconds roll by when I think "wow, that's a really big worm!"  Uh, can you say "SNAKE"?!  Well, apparently I can't say it that early in the morning!  It was more like an earth shattering, window breaking, horror movie actress quality scream that probably woke all of my neighbors.  At some point I realize that I have all dogs in the house and am standing inside (to this day I'm not certain how I got there), and I run to find my handsome hubby.  HE'S STILL SLEEPING!! 

Woody did wake up (after I shook him) and did the strong, manly thing:  he walked outside, bonked the snake with the top of an axe, thought it was dead, tried to pick it up, realized it wasn't dead and dropped it.  Snake - 1, Man - 0.  Mr. Snake slithered into a crevice along the patio and is, I'm sure, plotting his next early morning surprise greeting.  I'm also fairly certain this monstrous snake (approx 4-5") must be related to the pit viper, though my husband assures me it was not.

Just in case you are wondering, I do not think growing up in the country automatically makes you less inclined to have a "girlish" reaction to reptiles.  I'm almost positive that if the similar situation had happened when I was younger, the only difference would have been fewer neighbors hearing my screams of terror!