An encounter with Snakey

Jed came home a couple weeks ago with a teeny-tiny little snake that he had found on the sidewalk. He had scooped it up in a cup and brought it home as a surprise for Ben and Eliza. They loved 'Snakey'! Above you can see little Eliza waving to Snakey and saying "Hi snake! Hi!"

This video is so funny! I really wish the lighting was better. Eliza wasn't afraid of holding the snake at all. She thought it was fun! However, Ben was put off the idea of holding Snakey when Snakey pooped a little on Eliza when we first took him out of the cup. (The poor snake was pretty frightened I'm sure!) At the end of the video, Benjamin declines holding him and says, "He might poop on me."

We kept Snakey for a few days in this tupperware. I felt bad starving the poor thing, so we took the kids to Petsmart and spent 70 cents on five tiny minnows (which is what garder snakes would like to eat). Well, Snakey didn't touch the minnow (who was swimming around in a bit of water in a half of an egg shell). At that point, Jed looked Snakey up on the Michigan snake registry and he is actually a brown snake, not a garder snake. And brown snakes live mostly under the dirt and like to eat slugs and worms. Ben and Jed went outside at night to search for worms, but to no avail. So we let Snakey go back to the wild. I really hope he wasn't too weak for lack of food to be able to bounce back.... Maybe we will come across him again in the summer. He was a good little pet snake! (And now I have the deaths of five little minnows on my conscious... I feel guilty that they all just died eventually.... well, three did and the other two were killed in fishbowl water changing accidents (ask the spoon, not me... we found out it's true what Jed's dad says: Use the right tool for the right job....) )

Anyway, the kids loved Jed's surprise, and we sure had fun with Snakey!

We had just put the minnow in Snakey's 'habitat'. We all sat and watched him expectantly, as if he was going to pounce on the minnow and gulp him down before our very eyes. I think we watched him for longer than I am willing to admit. "Any second now..... oh! -there, he moved toward the minnow.... hmmm..... any moment..."