Cape Cobra

When we came back from the beach yesterday morning, Sarah shouted "Tommy's got a snake!" when she got the beginning of our path (first, as always). I thought it must just be a large lizard, and that she probably just saw the tail-end of it. But no. It was a small Cape Cobra. Tommy (Sarah's cat) either just saw it, or had been annoying it, but Sarah said he jumped a foot or two backwards into the air. Fortunately, he didn't seem to have been bitten, and he ran off without having to be closed up. Common sense. We closed Honey up just to be sure she didn't get too close.

I got a pole and the braai-tongs and a bucket and thought I'd do a Crocodile Hunter impersonation. Unfortunately, the little snake (30cm or so) was under a bush, so I couldn't get to it easily. I know you have to hold them down behind the head so that they can't bite, but doing that on soft sand didn't sound that easy. The snake had it's head up and flattened and was striking at the pole when I got too close. I just couldn't get to the back of its head with the braai-tongs (which handle was also a bit short for my liking).

So I forgot about Crocodile Hunter and did Damsel in Distress instead. I phoned the neighbours. I told them I wanted to try to catch the snake rather then kill it, but when they arrived with only a sharp spade, I knew the poor snake was history. Long story short, they confirmed that it was indeed a Cape Cobra (very poisonous), and killed it.

I am so, so cross with myself about this. The poor snake was only looking for a mouse or something, and ended up dead. Of course, I am justifying it to myself that I won't be very comfortable with kids and cats all over the place, thinking that there could be a deadly snake in the garden. Not that I would know if there are any anyway, as they obviously lay low most of the time (pun not intended).

In our 5 years here, I've never seen a snake close to the house, so maybe this poor little one had strayed a bit farther than normal from it's territory (are snakes territorial?). Let's hope the rest of its family stay away from our dune. It's horrible to just kill a snake on sight (even if you KNOW it's dangerous). There's no line that says "your space", "my space" and because of my ignorance of what to do, the snake ended up dead. It might just happily have slithered away never to be seen again, but just because I DON'T KNOW anything about snakes and their manner, I can make myself believe that killing it was the only option. People fool themselves about all sorts of things all the time. Ignorance is bliss and all that....