A bit of excitement

I had quite a rude shock when I woke up and shuffled into the kitchen for my morning frappuccino today -- I stopped dead in my tracks halfway through the dining room when I spotted a SNAKE on the kitchen floor! A SNAKE IN MY KITCHEN! Aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

I hate snakes more than almost anything on this planet. I'm terrified of them! AND THERE WAS ONE IN MY KITCHEN! It wasn't moving, but it was making sort of an "S" shape as if it had been in mid-slither when I walked in. I had no idea what to do. It was very small, but I don't know anything about snakes and had no clue what kind it was or if it was dangerous. As I stood there in stark terror, my cat Oliver sauntered up, flopped down on the snake, and started rolling around on it, which made me shriek in a panic until I realized that the snake was, in fact, already dead. Apparently, my army of cats had already dispatched it and were using it as a toy.

**shudder**

I still don't know what kind of snake it was, but I'm guessing it was harmless, since none of my cats seem any worse for the wear. I was hoping it was just a garter snake or something, but it did NOT look like any of these, which is a bit worrisome. It was small (probably just a baby) and greyish-brown, with a darker sort of diamond pattern on its skin and a diamond-shaped head. No rattle, though. Whew! It is now decomposing somewhere in the far reaches of my back yard. I'm just a little nervous now, because I don't know how it got inside the house or if there are going to be any more.

Yikes!