Larry Kies called me about 5 PM yesterday to ask if I wanted to play a quick set of tennis before dark. I said, “Sure – I’ll be there in five minutes.” When I got to his house, something else had commanded everyone’s attention. Carly Kies, (their 18-year old daughter) had seen a fleeting glimpse of a gray snake in her bedroom! Her bedroom was the garage before they converted it to a bedroom a few years ago, and it has quite a bit of stuff stored in it, so the snake could have been hiding behind anything. We slowly and carefully moved stuff and furniture out of the way, and were finally “rewarded” by seeing a two-foot gray snake slither out from behind a bookcase. As soon as he saw it, Larry said, “That’s a spitting cobra,” and indeed, it hissed at us right on cue. Another neighbor who had come over had a big stick which he smashed down on the cobra’s neck, and then Larry pinned it down with another stick. When he was sure it was dead, he picked it up, holding it carefully behind the head. It was indeed a spitting cobra, a truly poisonous snake, and the first I have seen here. Here’s a picture of Larry and a smiling Carly with the snake after all the action. As for the tennis – we never got to it!
A Spitting Cobra!
