Don' tell HIM

I 'forgot' to mention the copperhead I found under my hot tub cover Friday morning. I flipped it up to get some post-work reading time in and found a young -- about eighteen inch -- snake parked by the controls, in a crevice between them and the tub edge. My hot tub sits out on a cliff edge overlooking the valley and the secondary ridge twenty feet below me is rife with snakes sunning themselves (Hell, the snake-handling sect originated just north of Chattanooga on Sale Creek and continues to this day on this very mountain.) I don't mind them so long as they stay below me.

On average I see one snake a year (although one year a litter hatched in my side yard and I had baby copperheads pop up three times in a month!) I've only ever felt endangered by one -- a three foot rattler parked under a hedge near my sidewalk who was as thick around as my foream.

Mostly I take a live and let live attitude, but this was too close for comfort. I debated telling my man, but knew he'd come out with some gun (He's from Ohio and is afraid of snakes) and blow away both the snake and part of my deck. The snake meanwhile eyed me as I eyed it, debating whether to kill it or do my usual -- scoop it up with a shovel or pole and toss it over the cliff. I figure this way I give them a fighting chance -- if they can fly and land safely, then they're entitled to continue living, otherwise, well, it's in God's hands. But I didn't want to leave him to get a shovel, afraid he'd hide somewhere I couldn't find, so I wouldn't be able to enjoy my soak. I finally leaned down and picked up a metal pole (used for hanging torches) and planned to pick him up with it. As soon as I touched him, he coiled to strike, and I flipped him which got him to moving and he dropped off the deck edge and hurried under the leaves. About that time I heard my neighbor's dogs barking and summoned them over to me and they sniffed around interestedly, but, apparently, he had departed.

Damn it, now I'll have to walk down there a with a shovel and a dog for a while.