Nicey the Snake

The first morning we were in Cleveland, Jim and Hunter were outside searching for golf balls (my parents live on a golf course, the 16th green is in their backyard, thus lots of lost golf balls show up around their property) when I heard Jim laughing.  I went outside to investigate what was so funny when Jim said, "Did you see what Hunter just did?"  I had not.  Jim explained that as father and son were walking about a little garter snake slithered on by.  Jim wasn't sure how Hunter would react, so he just sat back and watched for Hunty's reaction.

At first Hunty excitedly pointed and shouted, "Wook!  Wook!  Wook!  A snake!"  Jim calmly responded, "Yup, that's a snake."  Since nobody was screaming or overreacting (probably what would have happened had Tralee or I had been present) Hunter picked up on Jim's calm demeanor and furthered his last comment with, "Yeah, a snake.  It's Nicey-the-Snake!"  Then he chased the snake down, picked it up, and threw it in Grandma and Grandpa's fire pit (no fire was present).  Each time the snake escaped, Hunter would grab it by the tail again, and put it back in the fire pit.  By the time I arrived, Hunty had developed quite a decorum with Nicey-the-Snake.  I decided this relationship must be documented, so I ran back inside, grabbed the camera, and took a few videos and pictures.



I like the part in the above video where Hunter starts hopping after Nicey.  Funny little boy!

When Tralee made it outside, she reacted much how I expected.  She wanted nothing to do with the Nicey.  In fact, she was afraid to walk in the grass in case the snake would try and bite her.  I think if Tralee was around when Hunty first spotted Nicey, Hunter would have picked up on Tralee's fear and developed his own dislike for his new slithery friend.  Hunter screams every time he sees a bug (although, he hasn't been doing it as much as of late), because that's what his big sister does.  I'm glad Nicey-the-Snake was discovered by a father-and-son duo because the result of a mother-and-son or sister-and-brother discovery would have been so much less fun--except the snake probably would have enjoyed it more because he would have been left alone.  Oh the poor snake!  I'm guessing he had quite the head ache (if snakes get headaches) after his morning of being man-handled by Hunter.

After the snake was finally left alone for a bit, the rest of us played on the golf course until the golfers started playing through.

We had a fun first morning in Ohio.