Mailbox Surprise
	A few years ago a three ft. long black racer took up residence in my mailbox. My whole life I had heard them called black snakes, but the real name is black racer. I always found it interesting that instead of crawling in a wavy line, black racers are fast and crawl in an almost straight line, holding their heads four or five inches above the ground. They will often vibrate the end of their tail, like a rattlesnake, if provoked or cornered. They're harmless even though they can be pretty cranky. I have one of those big country mailboxes and the snake stayed way in the back. I was a little startled the first time I saw him but after that I didn't give it much thought. I made sure I took care of all my mail and packages in the front part of the mailbox and we got along pretty well. I started thinking about my mail lady so I left her a note letting her know about the snake. She wrote on the bottom of the note, "Oh yes, I've been aware of him for a couple of weeks now." I thought it might be best to move him out. Compared to the nine ft. long alligator that was lying across my driveway outside of my gate one night, this didn't amount to a hill of beans in 40 acres. With a long, curved stick from a palm frond, I reached way back in the back of the mailbox and scooped him out. He wriggled through the air, and landed on the ground, and in true black racer fashion, raced awaTo my surprise, the next day, he was back. I repeated the same thing I had done the day before, and so did he. We did the same thing for days. I was pretty sure that eventually he'd get tired of this intrusion and give up and leave. Didn't happen. After about a week, when I scooped him out of the mailbox, he whirled his head around and bit me on the hand, in mid-air! There was the neatest U-shaped line of little blood drops on the outside edge of my hand just above my little finger. Well, this was a puzzlement. How was I going to get rid of this squatter? I knew that snakes avoid breathing fumes. They're very protective of their lungs, because they only have one. Well, they have two lungs, but because of their long, slender body shape, one lung is under developed. It's about the size of a grain of rice. I reasoned that if I put mothballs in the mailbox, it would take away the "snake appeal." I couldn't find mothballs anywhere. I don't know if they even make them any more. So I bought some of those urinal cakes. The ones that smell real strong of pine scent? You could smell that mailbox from thirty feet away. But it worked. Evidently, the black racer found another home, one with clean air, more to his liking. I'm just glad that someone, who may have had a few too many, didn't smell my mailbox and get the wrong idea of what it was. But at least the snake wasn't in there. Lash Out Loud