Of Birds and Snakes

This is an autobiographical post. The names of people and places may be changed.

We decided to write autobiographical posts about the colorful life we have lived. There will be tales of sleeping in a campervan on the beach, of defending a bird’s nest from a snake, and of running away from wolves while sick with bronchitis. There will be tales of diagnosis with PTSD and ADHD and how it changed our lives, of meeting biological family, and of job loss. It’s a tale of overcoming challenges, of finding out who we are, of love, hope, cats, and of a marriage that’s gotten stronger through it all.

Autobiography Post 12

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When we lived in our rural house, wildlife was aplenty. A week didn’t go by without the sight of a spider, a scorpion, or a snake. We hated it. But there was a benefit. Each year in the spring two birds would return to the nest they’d built on our vaulted front porch and raise their babies. It was fun to watch every year, and the birds never bothered us.

One spring I was in the restroom down the hall. Dorian was going to take out the trash. I heard the front door open and him shout in alarm. It was followed by the sound of intense bird screeching. The door immediately slammed shut.

What was that? I thought. Did the birds almost get inside?

I came out to find my husband by the front door. He looked at me with wide eyes.

“There is a snake on the front porch, and it almost got inside.”

“A snake?!” I was shocked. At this point, we’d only seen snakes on the neighborhood roads and not yet on our own property.

“Yes, come look!”

I looked out the window that was on our front door. A large, eight-foot black snake was halfway up the brick wall right next to our door. As we looked at it, we realized it wasn’t focused on us. It wanted the nest. The two birds were going crazy, flying around and screeching.

We banged on the door a few times, hoping to scare the snake off. To this day we’re not sure if our presence deterred it, or if it decided the nest was too high up. But a few minutes later it slithered back down and away.

We had two other encounters with snakes around the house in the time we lived there. One time another black snake (perhaps the same one as it happened not long after) was on our back porch near our patio furniture. We chased it away by spraying vinegar at it. The last time was one attempting to get into our garage while our cat was hanging out in there. That gave us a small heart attack, but her anger and us banging on the garage door scared it off.

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