I hate snakes

Just finished having the beejeezus scared out of me.

CinCHOME screamed "Get out here!!" NOW!!!"

The K9 scout battalion had found a 4 foot snake in the back yard.

Light brown in color, dark brown spots.

My thought "Crap, I can't shoot these things in the city. Where's the shovel?"

Reading my mind, the enemy quickly performed a retrograde movement to dense defensive terrain, under the prized rose bushes, taking tactical advantage of the defensive nature of the bushes, and my extreme reluctance to damage the bushes in front of the CinC.

After rigging additional light on the battlefield, I spotted the enemy leaving it's cover, trying to flank me. In full view of the CinC, I bravely advanced, shovel held at low port, ready to deal the first and final blow. The enemy consolidated, then counter-attacked with psycological warfare and a demonstration of deadly intent. I fell back to regroup, and pick up the light the CinC had knocked over when she screamed again.

The enemy again retreated to it's redoubt, and begain to dig in under the wood chips.

Visual ID of the enemy led me to believe it was probably not venemous,
although the coloring had me fooled at first. The head is the same size as the neck, not broad like a rattle snake. It did shake it's tail, but no rattles, and the tail looked complete.

Still wish I could have attacked with 2 or 3 dove loads.

Anyone know of any snake traps?