Our 3 Days with Dreyfus... or James

Sunday we had a marvelous day working in the yard. Scott bought a lawn mower and other fun lawn stuff, so he worked on the grass while I worked on weeds (both in the grass and in our "flower" beds). Close to the end of the day I found a snake! I screamed at first b/c I could only see a little bit of it, and you never know what kind it will be, but on further investigation I realized it was a ringneck. (this is a very small and skinny black snake with a yellow ring around his neck. We used to catch these all the time growing up. I remember keeping them in a shoe box numerous times, to never see them again. Who knows how many of those things got loose in our house?) So I grabbed him real quick and started yelling at Will to come over. Scott started yelling that I had better not get bitten by a snake while I'm pregnant, so to be nice I gave it to him to hold while I ran to get the sand bucket. Will fell in love immediately. He first named him James. Scott informed him that his name would then be James James, and that was kind of silly, but Will liked it so it stuck. We put a bunch of dirt/mulch in the bucket for the evening. Our internet was out due to power outage, so we couldn't determine what it ate. When we got it back on the next day we googled ringnecks and found out that the big ones eat salamanders and smaller snakes, but the smaller ones like earthworms. So I went out that day and caught him 2 earthworms. Unfortunately he didn't eat either of them. I also caught him a few other bugs but he didn't eat those either. I was kind of scared he might die in that bucket before he ever ate.

Tuesday morning Will decided that his name would now be Dreyfus. That is the name of the snake we had growing up. He asks me all the time what our snake's name was, so he decided that was his new name. That day he got brave and started holding him all by himself. Kirstine then decided she could do it too, w/o my knowing. She came in yelling, "Mommy come! Mommy come!" I asked her what for, and she said, "come see snake! come see snake!" So I went outside to see what he was doing, and he was on the deck. So I picked him up and put him back in the bucket and told her she was NOT allowed to pick him up again.

After nap the first thing Will did was go outside to check on him, and once again held him for at least an hour. He ran in at one point upset b/c he also dropped him on the deck. Our deck is not a very nice one, and there are many places where the slats are not together. So where Will showed me he dropped him was right in a crack that he could have fallen through. I immediately ran under the deck to find him, but no luck. Will was bawling he was so sad he lost him. It was so cute and pathetic I felt so bad for him. So I was holding him and we came and sat down on his little table, and as I was holding him I saw the snake stuck in a different crack. I eventually got him out and all was well.

Until Wednesday morning. I knew there was a forecast for rain, so I came in to check the weather report online to see if we needed to bring the snake inside. Will opened the door to check on him and I saw the deck covered in water. I ran to check the bucket but all that was inside was a dead worm and mud. Who knows what happened to the snake? My thought was that its survival instincts cut in and he escaped when he had to. Scott thinks a bird or some other animal came down and ate him. Either way, we had a very depressing morning yesterday. Will sat in my lap and cried for about 30 minutes. It was sooo cute. Now he wants me to go back outside and find him again. Or to find another one. I've told him it's not that easy and I might never find another one. So sad. At least I got a few pictures and a video. Enjoy!