What’s the weirdest reason for cancelling an appointment? Well, today I think I went close to the top of the list.

I was leaving to go to a client’s home today. I’d pushed the button to open the garage door, locked the door into the house, set the alarm and as I turned around to head to my car saw a HUGE snake crawling into the garage. He must have been right against the garage door when I opened it. There is NO WAY he could have gotten under it. He was as big around as my arm. SERIOUSLY! I scream and try to get back into the house. But, remember I’d locked the door? Fumbled with the keys and got back in. Close the door, run in the house, drop everything in my arms and head for the phone. Then, we have this thing called the “Garage Door Butler” which is, under normal circumstances, quite a help. It hadn’t been working in a while, but I got it working this morning. It closes the door after it has been open for a certain amount of time – lets say – oh, three minutes. I hear the Garage Door Butler beeping (indicating it is about to close). I open the door a crack and – the house alarm goes off! I stop the garage door from closing and see the snake heading to the back corner of the garage. Needless to say the dogs are now freaking out trying to figure out what is up. .BARK! BARK! BARK! is their contribution to the melee as the alarm is going off. I slam the door to the garage and head to the other keypad in the bedroom to turn the alarm off.

I finally stop shaking enough to get the phone book out and call animal control. Voicemail. Voicemail? Its 4:50! I call the non-emergency police number and say “THERE IS A HUGE SNAKE IN MY GARAGE!” and get “Hold on a second” and get transferred to a person in animal control who sends an animal control officer my way.

I then call my client and tell her, “Hi, I can’t make it today because there is a HUGE SNAKE IN MY GARAGE.” She understands and we re-schedule. She’s quite concerned because they’ve had the occasional snake around as well.

The animal control officer shows up (one of the things I like about Sugar Land is city services are very responsive.) I tell her what happened and describe the snake. She says, “what color is it?” “Black” I say. “Great. .. ” she says. I pull the cars out of the garage after she has made sure it is safe around the cars. After poking around the garage, she finds the snake and says “Yeah, he is a biggie.” Ha! I wasn’t exaggerating. Then she says “Yeah, these guys get fat.” Hum – not sure what that says about my arms, but I’ll take it as a compliment. She moves things around and finally snags the snake. He is a very angry, large snake. I’d say 4 – 5 feet long and, did I say, ANGRY! Turns out it is a cotton-mouth/water moccasin. Yeah, very poisonous. She says “He could do a lot of damage.” Great. . . . . He is continually striking at her. Glad the pole she is using to hold him down is long and made of sturdy metal.

Here’s a picture of the HUGE SNAKE that was in the garage. http://www.twitpic.com/44l2j She ends up putting him in the heavy duty garbage bag because he wouldn’t stay in the plastic box she brought. Then she says, “We have a new trainee. I’ll take the snake to him and let him practice with it, then we’ll relocate it.” Glad I could be of service in educating our animal control officers (who I really like – by the way).

So, here’s my entry in weird reasons for cancelling a client appointment. The snake is gone and I’m having to convince myself it is OK to get in the car and head to the grocery store. . . . . .Maybe I’ll just have soup for dinner. . . .. .