A new snake "hiding" place

I got ready to put in another load of laundry this morning. This is an automatic task - not requiring a lot of brain work, right??? You open the door throw in the clothes . . . but then . . . you realize that the washer is inhabited . . . a long slithery snake! I KNOW it was not there last night when I emptied the towels . . . And it is a BIG snake.

Now, outside, I enjoy watching snakes - they are part of nature, they are part of the food chain, and some of them eat rats and mice. But when wild things enter my house . . . that's another story. Plus my friend, Bettye had found two rattlesnakes by her barn recently, so whereas I did not give a blood curling scream, I certainly vocalized my displeasure over this occurrence.

Henry came and started the attempts to get the snake out of the washer - it didn't want to come. It opened its mouth very wide and began trying to strike at Henry . . . not a good sign.

I found Jonathan because I thought this was a site worth seeing - a once in a lifetime sight actually . . . Since the bar-b-que tongs were not working to remove the snake, Jonathan came up with the idea of using a loop of rope. Using an old closet dowel rod and a metal hook and some string, Henry caught the snake in the loop and with some difficulty dislodged the snake from the washer. Definitely a large snake - four foot - triangular head, had it not been poisonous we would have released it down by the pond. Safely releasing a venomous snake seemed more difficult as well as leaving a potential danger around our household, so . . . . with grief, we dispatched said snake.

Now . . . my adrenalin level is dropping. Henry is NOT going to show the photo of me standing on the chair while he worked on getting rid of the snake.

The mystery: how did the snake get into the washing machine? We think that while Jonathan was exercising on the treadmill that the noise scared the snake while it was inside the garage (we know we have snakes out there regularly because we find the snake skins). It must have scooted inside the door and then climbed up in the washer. I don't see how it could have come up through the water lines - too large.

You can bet I'll be checking the washing machine for snakes every time I open it now.