So on this beautiful August day I had been out working and I come home midday all happy and gleeful to be home! I pull into the driveway, up to the gate and stop. I put the car in park and before I even open my door I notice something odd. I notice right at the middle of the gate on the OTHER side there is a gopher sitting there. I found that odd as every time I pull up (there gophers are ALL over the property) they usually scurry off, afraid of the car. But this guy didn't and was just sitting there. So I was perplexed and stopped what I was doing. As I watched it about 15 seconds later it started doing this weird lil "dance"! It was on all fours and it would shake all over and move its tail around rapidly, then it would stop, then start again. So since it seemed to be facing something, I decided to back up my car so I could see over the hood. As I backed up a few feet I saw a 4 FOOT LONG SNAKE slowly moving, stretched out, along the bottom of the gate, parallel to it, going to the left. I freaked! Thank God I was in my car but my first thought was "I will not get out of this car, I'll sit right here". Because, of course, since I had been working I was wearing a dress and sandals, not properly dressed to deal with critters!!!!
So, of course, I had to take pictures. Right here is where the snake slithered to the left of the gate and in this pic the snake is just below that brush, although you can barely see it. But on the far right just above the bottom of the gate you can see said gopher.
What was happening, or so it seems, is the gopher was doing this odd little dance and ushering the snake AWAY. The snake continued to move away from the gopher, never trying to eat it. Which I found interesting since I'm pretty sure most types of snakes will or would eat this type of small gopher. So in the picture above you can see where the snake continued to move to the left, away from the gate and my driveway, towards that overgrown mesquite tree. The gopher is still right behind it.
Every time the snake would move further away, every foot or so the gopher would move closer to it and do its little dance again and the snake just kept on going. By the time it got here to the side I had already called my neighbor who had said after my FIRST snake encounter (see here: First Snake Experience) that if I ever saw another one to call her asap and she'd send her husband over to either relocate it off the property or kill it, depending on what kind it was. So I called her and he was on his way over. And I did film a quick video as well to try and capture the odd little dance the gopher was doing.
A friend told me they could barely see the snake in this photo without blowing it up but I swear, without exaggeration, that it was at least 4 feet long. Which to me, is a big snake, and no baby!!!
What ended up happening? The neighbor's husband came over (first time I'd even met him, lol!) and there I was in my car with the window down looking all girly and ridiculous, terrified of this snake and the snake was gone. I had watched it move under that tree and the gopher had stopped moving for a good few minutes so I figured maybe the snake went into a hole. So when my neighbor showed up, his truck scarred off the gopher and it ran away, unlike before. So he comes in, opens my gate, I pull through and he goes over to see where it was. He went all under where that tree over hangs and didn't find anything. He said hopefully he was gone and I wouldn't be seeing him again.
Let's hope!
XoXo,
Elizabeth
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