Snake in the Grass

I was already grumpy about walking down through the field behind our house because it is riddled with gopher holes, many hidden by the grass, and John, as usual had disappeared down our back stairs, as I gingerly picked my way through the craters. If you look carefully at this picture, you might be able to see the nearly two foot long snake well camouflaged in the dry grass that I almost stepped on before I saw it. Spike was inches away from it, but fortunately he stayed where he was while I got a better look. Rattlesnakes are not uncommon here but this one was a harmless gopher snake. Snakes are cold blooded and take awhile to warm up. Despite all our comings and goings, this one never moved, but I wasn't going to try to figure out if it was dead or or just cold.

The Abstract Thursday theme is 'water' so I have tagged this entry with the theme of 'water, lack thereof'....

Back in the house I realized that Spike was covered with grassheads and stickers and spent quite some time combing him, looking for ticks and getting out the stickers. Some of them had to be cut out so I went ahead and gave him a haircut while I was at it. Then I had to do a bit of 'accidental house work' vacuuming up all the detritus from the couch and the rug. Tim and Owen are coming tonight and Tim will sleep on the couch, so I even removed the cushions and vacuumed out crumbs, dog hair and dust.

We thought we heard something rattling around under the house a couple of weeks ago so John put a trap down there. It was untouched for a couple of weeks but today it had been sprung and the bait was gone, so I called the rat patrol who are going to try to come tomorrow. 

We may have good weather, but we are besieged by rodents who seem to be having an especially good year this year.

Dana and Jim are in Yosemite for a wedding this weekend so we have Blake while Peter has come home to look after four cats. Will, who is in the wedding, came up from San Diego yesterday with their two cats and left early this morning to drive back to Fresno to pick up Chloe at the airport. A lot of extra driving for a reluctant cat sitter (Peter). I don't know who is looking after the dog and the horse....