Mistaken Identity

While doing some cleaning yesterday afternoon and waiting for Grandpa Doughty to arrive, Dane ran into the house yelling. He was trimming some grass from around my box garden with the electric trimmers and discovered, "A snake, Mom, a snake!"

I ran out behind him. He pointed deep down into the grass. I had to look hard, but I could make out the brown, what appeared to be the snake's head, and clear markings on his brown back. I was concerned that we had a baby diamondback rattler.

It wasn't long before the whole neighborhood appeared. We were all gawking and yelling, excited and a little scared. I kept saying, "Even if it IS a baby, where there's a baby, there's a Mama, so please be careful!"

About that time, Grandpa rounded the corner of the house onto the driveway. We glanced up briefly and acknowledged him (not much of a welcome for poor Grandpa!) and Deanna yelled to him what all the excitement was about. Grandpa jumped right into things with us, leaving his suitcase in the driveway to join the group gathered around the grass. Grandpa finally got a stick and managed to get the snake on the stick and raise it almost to the top of the grass before it fell off. It looked pretty short to me and really made me wonder if it WAS a snake.

"Maybe it's a newt," I kept saying. People looked at me like I was crazy. It was just that it was fat, but very short. It seemed to me that a snake that was that big around should have been far longer.

Don got some yard tools out of the shed and another dad, him, and Grandpa began working on the grass pile, trying to reach the snake. I decided I had had enough and headed back inside.

A few minutes later, Dane came running back in.

"Guess what, Mama?" he said. "Turns out our snake is a caterpillar!" We all had a good laugh. It really DID look like a snake, except for the length.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, I put a picture of it above. It's an elephant hawk moth caterpillar, which are native to England, interestingly enough. Dane put in back in the ground this morning - they burrow under the dirt to pupate, and we didn't want it to die.

Grandpa made it here safely and we did greet him once the excitement was over. And it was a fun afternoon. I can't say I'm sad it wasn't a snake. At least I can sleep peacefully at night.