Red on Black

Living with nature can be awesome. I wake up in the morning to birds singing all over the place. What prettier music is there! And in the evenings there are the soft hoots of the owls talking to each other.

On several occasions I have spied red foxes scurrying from yard to yard. F caught one in a squirrel cage a few months ago. They are beautiful, lithe animals.

Some nights as the sun is setting the bunnies come out and dart around the yard. They look soft and fluffy. Most are a light to medium shade of brown, but several are white. And, yes, they appear to have cotton tails.

Pet dogs are not allowed to set foot on the street, but cats can roam at will and leave their droppings everywhere. Being a dog person, I think this really stinks.

Then there are the armored rodents that have started to burrow under my home. Being olfactory animals, I have tried to thwart their efforts with moth balls. So now they want to dig holes in my front yard. Where is a BB gun when you need one.

J told me tonight that we have three baby gators in the boat marina. Where there are baby gators, there are momma gators nearby. Lake Yale is well known for its huge gator population.

All these animals, pleasant and nasty alike, I can tolerate. But when I came home tonight, I was met by a critter I just cannot, under any circumstance, live with. He must die!

As I got out of the car with arms overflowing, I went to lock the car and saw a slithering coral snake in the headlights. I know for sure it was a poisonous snake by reciting the rhyme C taught me many years ago: “Red on black, friend of Jack. Red on yellow, kill the fellow.” It was definitely red on yellow.

People living in Florida know full well the dangers of the many poisonous snakes indigenous to the area. And as far as I’m concerned they can live here too.

But when they come out from the bushes and between me and my front door, it is time for them to die.