Snake in the Car!!!!!!!!!!

It was late in the evening when we reached home after a 9 hour drive from Smokies camping trip in October 2009. Rama left to a party soon and I went to sleep tired. Around midnight, he called me to come out with a torch. Confused and half asleep, I went down from our Apartment and saw Rama standing beside the car, hood opened, pointing to something. I jumped away in shock when I saw a long snake lying still on the engine. The snake stood up from the hood, other side of the windshield right before him when he was driving back home. He immediately pulled the car to a side, called 911 and in no time a cop stopped by to know what was wrong. They tried to find it but invain, so he asked Rama to drive away (I am still not sure if he really believed the story). We went back upstairs, called 911 again and they asked us to just wait until the next day so that it would leave the car by itself.

 Next day, we spent hours on Google looking for snake species in TN and ways to get rid of a snake- critter control, snake traps etc. Critter control was expensive and they would take it only if they could find the snake. Snake trap was not suitable to place on the engine. We tried to figure out how it got there and identified two possibilities: either it might have fallen on the car the windy night or it might have accidentally got in smelling the chicken (the broth leaked in the trunk and was smelling rotten). Being Sunday, we didn’t use the car all day and checked it in the evening only to find it still there. This continued for the next couple of days, for a while think it was gone and later would find it. We drove the car to office, school and stores closing vents and confident it could never step in. When we failed to find the snake after that, we thought it left. We were wrong!!

 A week passed by and we found IT again when opened the hood before taking the car for an oil change. Immediately we took the car to critter control, searched for the snake but never found it. Totally vexed up, Rama bought a tong from them to give it a try by himself. We drove the car to nearby woods and waited until we saw it’s head peeking out. Rama with his National Geographic experience, caught hold of it using tong really close to its head and pulled it out of the car. A moment of panic… it struggled fiercely and in a second, fell off at his feet and disappeared fast into the trees. We stood there for a while to figure out where it went and finally drove back peacefully. Later someone identified it as a copperhead, a poisonous snake, OMG had we known it before, we would have taken a different approach. No doubt, it was a huge relief and an interesting story to share for days. But every now and then, we remember it and wonder if it was ever able to survive that Michigan winter!