The Hawaiian encounter with a snake

by Kathy
(Houston, Texas)

No snakes in Hawaii
I had lived in Honolulu Hawaii my whole life and never had been to the mainland until we moved to Houston Texas. It sure is different in Houston than Honolulu in more ways than one.

One summer I was in my yard tending the garden I had started back in the spring. It was a beautiful sunny morning and I needed a couple of tomatoes for dinner.

I was pulling weeds and checking on everything when out of the corner of my eye I saw some leaves moving in this one area. I didn’t think much about it and continued on. I saw it again. I decided to investigate.

Snakes hang out around veggie gardens as there are mice there too
Upon sticking my hands in that area and moving the leaves around I saw it………………..Now being from Hawaii there are no snakes what-so-ever there. This was my first encounter, and I screamed so loud 2 of my neighbors had come over to see what was going on. I told them about the snake.

They asked me what did it look like, then my gardening friend started laughing and said it was a garter snake and would not hurt me. Well I insisted that it had to go. We searched for it and found it, he picked it up and put it in a burlap bag and took it away.

He said 'you know, there are going to be others! And maybe even poisonous ones.'

Back home safe and sound
Soon after we ended up moving back to Hawai’i, I never let my husband know but that was my main reason for wanting to leave. Besides, things are much simpler in Honolulu.