TheBanyanTree: snake story

[Roger Pye]

Robin had a resident snake in her garden at Jindabyne in the Snowy Mtns 
when I met her 15 years ago. Of course we called him Snakey! I wrote a 
story about him, might have sent it to Spoon. Anyway, here it is

SNAKEY

	Opposite the foot of the front steps of the split-level brick house in 
the mountains was a rock-garden - not a made-up garden with rocks, 
gravel and soil, but a natural garden of monstrously old granite 
boulders with niches of soil and grass here and there. Draped over some 
of the boulders and part of the gravel path which led to the steps was a 
creeper which had grown there for over ten years; during spring it 
spawned a mass of white flowers and in the autumn and early winter was 
covered in red berries which attracted parrots and other birds.
	Snakey lived between the rocks beneath the creeper and had done so for 
at least four years. Occasionally the humans who dwelt in the house 
caught him sunning himself on the path or a rock bare of creeper, but he 
didn't bother them nor they him for they realised he too had his part to 
play in their environment.  Just how important this part was did not 
occur to them for a long time.
	When the Family moved to a cottage on a farm 40 miles away (but still 
in the mountains), Snakey stayed behind - in fact, it must be said that 
the humans didn't even give him a thought until the real estate agent 
phoned one day and voiced her indignation - and fright - at finding him 
on the bottom step when she took a potential buyer to inspect the house.
	The house (like so many in the district) didn't sell so, through the 
same estate agents, the humans rented it out on a 12-month lease. Soon 
after the tenant (a city woman) moved in, she complained to the humans 
(who were visiting the premises) about the creeper smothering the rocks 
and path; would it be all right, she asked, if she cut it back a little? 
  Not a problem, they answered, not realising that their idea of
cutting the creeper back 'a little' in no way tallied with the tenant's 
intention. For it wasn't the creeper which the tenant was concerned 
about - it was the brown snake. She got rid of all the creeper - and 
Snakey as well - but without telling the humans.
	A few months afterwards, a letter from the agent arrived at the 
Family's establishment; to it was attached an invoice from a Pest 
Controller.
	'The tenant (the letter said) has complained of rats and/or possums in 
the sub-floor and ceiling spaces.  Naturally, we took immediate action 
(naturally!) and called in XYZ Pest Controllers whose report is 
attached.  The cost is $125 which will be deducted from our payment to 
you next month.'
	'Inspection of sub-floor and ceiling spaces (the report said) revealed 
evidence of infestation by rats and/or possums; the following action was 
taken ...'
	"Rats?  Possums?" the male human queried the agent on the phone. "When 
we lived there, we never saw or smelled a trace of rats anywhere near 
the house - the snake in the creeper looked after them - and the 
possums, which we used to feed on the back verandah two nights a week, 
never ever went higher."
	"Ah," the agent replied - carefully, it would be imagined - "The, ah, 
snake in the creeper isn't there any more, neither is the creeper, and 
the tenant and her colleagues are frightened of the possums so they 
don't feed them."
	"Typical," the male human said in disgust to his partner after he'd 
hung up. "The tenant upsets the natural ecological control mechanisms 
and we have to foot the bill. What next, I wonder?"

what next indeed!

roger


NancyIee at aol.com wrote:
>  
> In a message dated 6/7/2010 9:41:10 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
> pyewood at pcug.org.au writes:
> 
> However  the snakes had gone 
> and none have been seen  since.
> 
> 
> 
> We have a huge variety of snakes here. The Black Racers, of course, are  
> good guys, and so I don't mind them sunning on the walkway. I also keep  
> miniature horses, which would surely succumb to a venomous snake bite. So, I  
> keep one billy goat with the horses. Goats hate snakes, and stomp them into 
> mush  whenever they can. They do occasionally catch a racer , but more often I 
> will  find a more dangerous kind, Water Moccasin, rattler, both big and 
> pygmy, and  Coral squished out in the pasture.  I also have a resident corn 
> snake of  great length, and I go great lengths to step around him when I 
> encounter him in  our outside the barn. They eat their weight in rats, etc, and so 
> have permit to  live here. I have also spotted a family of Indigo snakes, 
> rare here.   Beautiful snakes, those.
>