Snake in the basement!!

1.  I rent a great basement apartment from the parents of a friend of mine.

2.  The dad likes to play pranks, like leaving the plastic hand in a sleeve sticking out of my couch after he had done some work on the air condtioning.

So, when I saw it my first thought was that it was plastic snake, a joke, because I had gotten a plastic bug in a box last month.  But somehow, it looked to real to be plastic.  So I threw a pen at it and it didn't move, aha!!!  Plastic, and yet I was still worried, so I went a got a spatula out of the kitchen and tossed that at it.  It moved a tiny bit, which could have been the result of the impact of the spatula.  I concluded it was plastic, but a really good one, because it had lots of s-turns and a tiny head.  BTW, it was black and as long as my forearm to the end of my pinkie finger.

I know that black snakes are not dangerous, and I was still hyped up on how incompetent some of the people on Survivor were, so I strolled around my living room putting my stuff away, and snuck up on it from the other side of the pool table.

It had moved, a definite turn back on itself, not the result of a thrown spatula!!!!  I began to feel some panic, but not full blown squealing, because it was not very active.  I concluded I had better get the parents, responsible, parents up stairs.  I climbed up and knocked on their door, no answer, living room totally dark!!  Rats!!!  No help there.  I was trying to psych myself up, I am a big girl, intelligent, and not overly squeamish, I could handle a simple, harmless, black snake!!!  I went the long way round the pool table, into the kitchen, for some implement to grab the snake with, so I could toss/ herd it out the door.  I grabbed the hotdog thongs and a water caraffe, thinking I could contain it in something, and headed back for battle.  It had only moved a little bit, so I was getting optimistic.  I put the caraffe on the floor, the spout towards the snake and nudged it up till it was touching "blackie".  He began to show signs of life, and backed away from the caraffe.  I ruthlessly reached out with the thongs and grabbed his back portion, thinking of the Steve Irwin shows where he grabbed them with his hands, for Christ's sake, and always grabbed the back end of the snake!!  It began to writhe, and I tilted up the caraffe, and tried to cram him in the carffe, he would not cooperate.  Dropped him, and squealed, and grabbed him again, imagining him, getting under a piece of furniture, unreachable...started quick walking to the kitchen, dropped him again, squealed, jumped, and grabbed him again to keep him from going under my credenza, scurried into the kitchen, dropped him again, squealed, jumped...you get the picture, he was not being all passive at this point, he was wiggling, this happened like three more times, trying to grab him before he went under crap!!!!  Opened the kitchen door, thinking he would be like a squirel, or a small fuzzy rodent, and head for freedom!!!!  No, he got away, he is under the fridge, camping out.  For anyone's info, animal control does not work at night, and the police will not come over to remove a snake from under a refridgerator. 

I gave up and tried to calm down, and gave him the kitchen.  I would periodically walk to the kitchen, check to make sure he was not out in the open, and then go climb back up on the couch.  Tried to calm down by going on Gather, called work, discussed my options with the guys on mids, who offered the couch in the office, turned down that offer, and stayed awake for several more hours, deciding I could live and let live.  

I suspect, I am not positive, that blackie is still under the fridge.  I have done several things in the kitchen, to let him know it is my basement, not his.  But I cannot call animal control because I feel foolish.  I have not told the parents upstairs what happened, although I don't know how they slept through my squealing, what they must think I was up to I don't know, because I think they'll just get someone to come and kill it, all though the dad is really soft hearted and might not do that.  So now, as I write this, my heart is racing again, and I wonder that I managed to pick it up at all!!!  But I am on the couch, and it's all ok.

Live and let live.