Regret

We bought a new lawn mower today. Our old mower has been a problem for a while, and we've been repairing it over and over. Today, we decided enough was enough and bought a new one. My cousin usually mows our lawn, but he's been in the hospital, so I mowed the lawn with the new mower. I ran over this snake with the mower! He survived being run over because the blades were set pretty high.

I like snakes. We have a resident garter snake in our yard. We have a black racer in the neighborhood who does not live in our yard, but visits often.

But I am wary of snakes I don't recognize. Here in Florida, we have several species of poisonous snakes (water moccasins, copperheads, a couple varieties of rattlesnakes, coral snakes). There is an elementary school directly behind my house. I do not have children, but every day, children walk on the sidewalk behind our house to get to school. I worry when I see snakes I don't recognize because I would not want any of these children to be bit by a poisonous snake that I inadvertently let live. So we killed this snake by cutting its head off with a shovel.

Turns out that it was a harmless corn snake. I wish I could have identified it more quickly. I would have been happy to have the corn snake living in our yard :-(