Snakes - It had to be Snakes

While I was in the hospital with Jude, my mom informed us that when she let Buddy out to go to the bathroom, a snake slithered his little way out from under the bushes in our front yard and across the side walk.

While I was immediately grossed out, I reminded myself that we live in an area with a lot of trees, bushes and over growth all around. Some of our neighbors don't really have front yards, they have a forrest (exaggeration). I also reminded myself that the aura of the neighborhood is what initially drew me to this house - so wildlife is a natural side effect. With our shoddy screens in our windows and lack of a nice sliding back door, it's not uncommon for there to be an assortment of bugs floating around our living room.

However, before I even got home, Ryan had thrown mothballs under the bushes to keep the snakes out of the front of the house - they're more than welcome to roam around in the backyard we presently don't use. His concern was me or someone else carrying the baby to be startled at the sight of a snake and dropping the poor kid (I assured him this probably wouldn't happen). Up until 2 days ago I hadn't seen a snake, I'd only heard stories.

On a seemingly unrelated note: we don't have a fenced in rear yard. When Buddy needs to go to the bathroom he gets put on his chain system we have on the side of the house. Up until about a week or two ago, he was fine with this. However, recently there have been a few accidents (you know, the doggy kind of accidents) in the house that are undeniably his. In addition, when we lure him outside he starts to resist and pull back and hangs out in the area of the driveway that the cord reaches instead of prancing around in the grass and doing his business. Up until last night it hadn't even accord to me that the snakes might not be just in the bushes out front - they're probably in the shrubs and growth in Buddy's bathroom too.

I mentioned this to Ryan and he moved the chain to a tree near our front door. Apparently he went outside this morning with out a problem and went to the bathroom right away. It appears that Buddy is like Ryan's hero Indiana Jones - he hates snakes.