Snakes Alive...or at least they were....

Since moving to Texas, one of my biggest fears has been that a kiddo or dog would get bitten by a rattlesnake.  It's probably not very common, but I'm ridiculously afraid of that. So, today, after Ethan and I had finished planting all of the veggies and herbs in our new garden, I flipped out when Chris said he saw baby snakes!  He said he was pretty sure they were baby rattle snakes.

He grabbed a shovel to try to kill them.  After hitting one of the snakes several times, the thing kept trying to slither away.  I grabbed a butcher knife  (in hindsight, I realize how ridiculous this sounds!), and attacked the snakes.  I hacked one practically in half, and the resilient little thing kept sticking his tongue out and trying to move.

 

 I snapped a few pics to compare to ones online and make sure they were baby rattlesnakes.  Unfortunately for the snakes, they were only innocent garter snakes, which are actually helpful to gardens.  Now I'm praying that I didn't anger the "garden gods" and this won't be a bad omen for the rest of the season.  In my defense, I really did think they were rattle snakes.  Baby rattle snakes aren't born with the "rattles," so I didn't know how else to distinguish them, and had to make a quick call.  Sorry baby snakes!

As if that weren't bad enough, Chris then used the weed-eater a few minutes later and killed a big frog living under our tree.  It wasn't a good day for wildlife in our backyard!