I got my laying hens last week and have been setting up paddocks for them. I have done free range all these years, but I want a yard that is NOT a chicken poop land mine. I want ONE pair of shoes that I can just slide on and go to town without inspection and disinfection. Yesterday I went to cover their pen with some bird net. It was lying on the ground for a few days and when I grabbed it, I just about wet my pants. I screeched, dropped it and hopped around a minute, then realized it was not rattling at me.
Photos / video taken with Samsung Luna Pro cell phone
Just a gopher snake, but a gopher snake in trouble.
He had snaked his way into the net but he was not snaking out of it. It was so tightly wound around his belly I was not sure I could even cut the net without cutting him. Snip, snip, snip... little by little I got the net cut off. I was quite pleased with my technique in the end. I would slide the dull side under just one little strand and snip, then move to the next. Maybe a hundred little cuts but I never even nicked him.
A most uncooperative subject!
It was sort of a snake juggling act. Every time I would get some cut off, he would try to wriggle free except that his idea of "free" was back into the net! I admit, I got snippy with him... "What are you, stupid or suicidal?"
After probably ten minutes of very careful cutting and snake juggling, the last bit of net was loosed and he slithered off without so much as a backward glance. That is fine, I really do not expect shows of gratitude from snakes, I have been involved in politics...
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Go eat a vole and we will call it even, buddy!