It was Tuesday, about midday. Jr. had returned to his Adirondack (that’s a three sided cabin) to have a break between Merit Badge classes. I went up to his cabin to visit with him and managed to bump a flashlight off the bunk above where he was sitting. As I look back I’m really glad that I stopped Jr. from crawling under the bunk to get the flashlight, I’m not sure what made me tell him to use the broom that was against the wall, but I’m thankful I did because there was a four foot Black snake under the bunk. We coaxed him out from under the bunk and out of the cabin and figured that was the end of it.
About Thursday one of the boys up near junior’s cabin calls down and says that they have a snake on a boys’ bunk. So I and another scoutmaster run up to the cabin (you don’t run in camp, unless it’s an emergency). We both try to locate the snake; I just see it as it leaves the bottom bunk and grab it by the tail, seeing that it was a Black snake, and figuring it was the same one from earlier in the week. It was not as calm as I thought it should be, but of course I’ve never been picked up by my tail, or feet.
Anyway, the snake is moving around and I’m trying to calm it down by staying calm. I make a failed attempt to support it in the upper part of its body and it bites me. So I do what I know will work and grab it behind the head, so it can’t bite me. As snakes go, I was surprised at this one because it actually tried to wiggle out of my hold, backwards. After a minute or two, we are waiting for the camera to show up, I figure it’s calmed down, so I let go of it’s head and it bites me again, cranky. But we finally get a photo of the thing and I let it go over the hill away from the sleeping area of the boys.
The best part was the call home, I called to check on my bride and to see how her and her sister were doing. I didn’t embellish the story, although I wanted to. When I retold the story about catching the snake and told her that I had gotten bit, she was very concerned. In fact she was more concerned about me being bit than when I’ve busted my knuckles repairing our car, and was bleeding all over. But I was happy that she was concerned.
I really wanted to work it for all it was worth, but I just didn’t have it in me, for one thing the bite was really far less that what a black berry bush has done to me. So, you could say I missed an opportunity, honestly I just couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t make it to be more that it was.
In a few years that snake will be about ten feet long and I will have come real close to needing stitches, Crikey!
About Thursday one of the boys up near junior’s cabin calls down and says that they have a snake on a boys’ bunk. So I and another scoutmaster run up to the cabin (you don’t run in camp, unless it’s an emergency). We both try to locate the snake; I just see it as it leaves the bottom bunk and grab it by the tail, seeing that it was a Black snake, and figuring it was the same one from earlier in the week. It was not as calm as I thought it should be, but of course I’ve never been picked up by my tail, or feet.
Anyway, the snake is moving around and I’m trying to calm it down by staying calm. I make a failed attempt to support it in the upper part of its body and it bites me. So I do what I know will work and grab it behind the head, so it can’t bite me. As snakes go, I was surprised at this one because it actually tried to wiggle out of my hold, backwards. After a minute or two, we are waiting for the camera to show up, I figure it’s calmed down, so I let go of it’s head and it bites me again, cranky. But we finally get a photo of the thing and I let it go over the hill away from the sleeping area of the boys.
The best part was the call home, I called to check on my bride and to see how her and her sister were doing. I didn’t embellish the story, although I wanted to. When I retold the story about catching the snake and told her that I had gotten bit, she was very concerned. In fact she was more concerned about me being bit than when I’ve busted my knuckles repairing our car, and was bleeding all over. But I was happy that she was concerned.
I really wanted to work it for all it was worth, but I just didn’t have it in me, for one thing the bite was really far less that what a black berry bush has done to me. So, you could say I missed an opportunity, honestly I just couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t make it to be more that it was.
In a few years that snake will be about ten feet long and I will have come real close to needing stitches, Crikey!
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