Re: I want a medal

The same thing happened to me a few years ago with a chicken snake that was about 5 feet long. I had my friend hold up the netting with a long stick so I could figure out how to release the snake. In my case gravity enabled the snake to somehow slide out backwards. What a relief. It was so tangled I didn't know how I would ever have released it. 
zem
zone 7
West TN
----- Original Message ----- From: "Johnson, Cyndi D Civ USAF AFMC 95 CG/SCSRT" <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil> 
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 9:47 AM
Subject: [CHAT] I want a medal



I came home last night and started watering this little corner of the
back lawn we reseeded a couple weeks ago. We had put down bird netting
over it to keep the dogs from digging it up while the grass got started.
So I'm standing not terribly close spraying water and I see something
moving...uh-oh. It was a 3 ft gopher snake caught up in the netting. I
said bad words.  Seems every time we try to use that netting something
living gets stuck in it, you'd think we'd know better by now. I looked
and he was really tangled, he must have threaded himself through that
mesh in 20 places. I wimped out for a moment and called husband's cell
phone, but he was nowhere near being home. Damn. Now, I'm not really
afraid of snakes, but somehow handling one not in a cage was making me
mighty nervous. But I got my little pair of scissors, decided he
couldn't move his head far enough to bite me, and started cutting him
loose from the tail end. There I am trying desperately to see the fine
plastic mesh and cut it off without cutting him, meanwhile the snake is
thrashing around my hands. He never did hiss or try to bite me,
thankfully, and finally I just grabbed behind the head and lifted him up
so I could see better.   Eventually I got him loose and dropped him. He
tried to go down a gopher hole near the lawn, but it was blocked about 4
inches down so he just laid there with his head down the hole like an
ostrich. I couldn't let the dogs loose until he was out of sight so I
had to pick him up again and find him a hiding place.
After I threw away the netting I  got myself a stiff drink. Sheesh!

Cyndi

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