I don't like snakes

It was so nice outside yesterday that we decided to sit outside on the deck with Braelyn for a while once we got home from work. We were enjoying the sound of the waterfall coming from our koi pond and were discussing why the fish weren't eating very much the past few days. Then we found out what might be causing the problem. A baby copperhead was in our pond. I frreeeaaakkkeed out. I grabbed Braelyn and stood up in my patio chair, screaming "get it, get it". Jay fished it out with a net and it coiled up & started striking at him. Somehow Jay got it contained into a tupperware dish. This is a picture of our pond (I was 8 mos pregnant here).


You can see how all those rocks and the cool water might be a haven for snakes. Especially with the field behind us, which they've now begun construction on - encouraging the critters even more to visit our lush backyard. Jay didn't have the heart to kill the copperhead, so he let it go across the street in the bushes of a house that's empty right now. I'm just wondering where this baby's mama is.
It makes more sense now why we had a fish attempt suicide last Saturday night. Jay walked outside to see one of our biggest koi flipping on the patio. Now I understand why it lunged itself out of the pond. There are freaking SNAKES in there! And who knows what is between the rocks......oh gosh, I've made myself nauseous just posting this.
Here's a picture of what we found. (no, this is not Jay's hand - its a google image - he is not that brave! (as I was standing 20 feet back on top of a chair screaming while he captured it)




The fish from the Saturday night suicide attempt is okay (surprisingly) and I have thrown the tupperware dish in the trash. It was a really nice one. Before he caught the disgusting thing, Jay was like "go get me a glass jar". Like I keep glass jars around. I don't make jam, Jay! I don't just have a case of Mason jars on hand. So I had to sacrifice my tallest tupperware container. Oh well, that's one way to get rid of the plastics in your house.