I stepped outside with the dogs a few moments ago and disturbed the rattlesnake that was lounging in the garden next to the door. I heard the rattle and jumped away reflexively, my heart pounding, but the rattlesnake was only rattling to show us its annoyance as it slipped back under the house. Whew! Then, just after that, in an interesting bit of synchronicity, I felt drawn to another part of the yard where there was another rodent hole and saw this weird thing sticking out of it – it was a two foot long snake skin – the snake had shimmied through this small hole to help rub the skin off I think. Symbolically, that’s a wonderful sign for outgrowing a framework and leaving it behind – thanks, Universe! I could do without the ‘fight or flight’ adrenaline rush though – LOL!

Addendum: It’s now about five hours later… I opened the door a few inches to check if the rattler was around -nope. Instead, there was a SMALLER snake, two feet long, staring up at me! I was thinking it might be a gopher snake instead of a rattlesnake, and I tried to memorize the markings so I could easily tell them apart if I couldn’t see the tail end (They can seem similar, esp. if they are small). It seemed as curious about me as I was about it… I had to laugh. It’s head was about as big as a dime, tops, and the body was a little bigger around than my thumb. Then I closed the door again and came inside to check the snake book. Yup – gopher snake – not poisonous. WHEW! Okay, enough already with the snakes! LOL.