What is happening: Lois, with her old, undependable flashlight, had gone to shut the chicken house doors for the night. Instead of seeing the black hen, Fluffy, on her nest with her chicks, she saw a big, black snake trying to eat another chicken, Keeter. She ran to the house for help from Ken.
As soon as Ken got to the chicken house, he shoved the shovel underneath the snake and tossed it in the air. The snake spit out Keeter and made a beeline for the door. Ken tossed it back into the chicken house under the roost where it writhed while he tried to kill it with the shovel. The snake was too fast and started to slither outside.
I did not know what Ken was doing, but the snake was rapidly disappearing into the darkness. I knew that if that snake got away, the chickens would never be safe again. I thought of Keeter. All of this happened in a flash, and in a split second of time, I knew what I had to do. As the snake’s tail was disappearing out the door, I reached down, grabbed it, and wrapped it securely around my hand.
Ugh! The snake’s tail was slimy and stinky, but I held on. It was not going to kill my Keeter and get away with it! I pulled with all my strength, but the snake did not budge. I called to Ken, “I am pulling the snake, but it does not give.”
Ken called back, “I have it pinned down out here. Can you hold it?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I said determinedly.
“Okay, here goes,” said Ken. I heard, chop, chop, chop, as Ken struck at the snake with the shovel. “This sure is a tough snake!” exclaimed Ken. Chop, chop, and then the snake went limp in my hands, and I was holding a three-foot tail portion of that very big, black snake.
But it was not over. The half of the snake with its head was underneath the chicken house. What would it do? Would it grow a new tail? Would it kill more of my precious pet chickens? And where were Fluffy and her chicks?
Ken and I looked under the chicken house with the flashlight, hoping to see the front half of the snake, but we could not see anything. Wherever it was, it was hanging on to something.
So we turned our attention to finding Fluffy and the babies. She had wisely taken her babies to a thick clump of tall weeds, and there she was, calmly sitting on the ground with the babies nice and warm underneath her! She was nervous about going back into the chicken house, so we freshened her nest and placed some of the babies in it. Fluffy looked all around, and when she saw that the snake was gone, she took possession of her nest once more and settled her babies. There was peace and quiet in the chicken house.
Immediately, the old, red flashlight went out, and we were never again able to get it to work. God kept it working just as long as we needed it!
We closed up both the north and south sides of the chicken house and went back into our house, but I was uneasy. I felt like the snake affair was not over, so I turned to my Heavenly Father again and prayed, “Lord, please let us see the top half of the snake.” Immediately I felt at peace and went to sleep.