Where Is Samuel L. Jackson When You Really Need Him?

Week before last, one evening after work, I saw Alabama focused on something under the side table in the living room. Every cat owner knows that intense, huntery look, and I immediately thought she'd spotted a bug. Pushing her out of the way, I saw a skinny long thing, and I thought a lizard had gotten in.

But no.  IT WAS A SNAKE.

A tiny snake, I think maybe a baby (I don't know anything about snakes).  Dark colored, maybe 7 or 8 inches long, and very skinny. It reared up its tiny head and struck at Alabama. I grabbed her to get her out of the way, and yelled for Greg. He picked it up in a kitchen towel and took it outside and let it go.

Neither of us is phobic about snakes, but seeing one in your house is a whole different thing. How did it get in? Where did it come from? Might there be a nest of snakes somewhere, in the attic maybe?  It's the kind of thing you keep thinking about afterwards.  Could it have gotten into our bed? Should we start checking our shoes for snakes?

The next morning I got up at 6 to do my workout dvd and pack my lunch for work, and saw Sydney playing with something under the dining room table. I bent down and looked closer and saw ANOTHER SNAKE.

Or maybe it was the same snake, it looked more or less the same to my panicky eyes. Greg was still asleep, so I froze for a second. There was no way, I thought, that I could take my eyes off the tiny snake. It would slither across our ceramic tile floors and be lost forever in our house, and then we'd just have to move. So I got a kitchen towel and picked it up by its head. It wrapped its little body around my wrist, and I had one of those moments where I just had to keep perspective and not freak out.  Still in my workout tank top and baggy pants, I took it into the front yard and flung it (and the towel) as far away as I could.

What the hell, though? Was it the same snake? Were there dozens of tiny snakes living in our house somewhere? How did it/they get in? Would it/they come back?

It's been over a week with no further snake sightings, so Greg and I are beginning to calm down. Both cats seem very disappointed, though, and clearly wish to see more snakes.