My Yard...Teeming with Wildlife

Last year we had quite a problem with voles. No, they are not mice, and not moles...just something in between. They look a lot like mice, but they are diggers. They carved little trails through our yard and came up all over the place. Tyler spent a lot of time thinking of ways to exterminate the unwanted guests. At one point, he caught five babies and we put them in a jar (here is a picture from last year).



He worked hard to get rid of them, so as the season has warmed up, he has been watching for early signs of our unwelcome residents. Tyler filled in all the holes and watched for new ones to be dug. He placed rat poison in all the usual spots and waited. It looked like most of the little pests were gone. There are a few that continue to camp out under the AC unit, but the worst of them (back by the garden) seem to be eradicated.
Tyler checks the holes religiously. He comes home from work and pops outside just to make sure that nothing has developed. He took Ivory with him yesterday and I was watching out the kitchen window. "See," he said. "There is a dead mouse right there." (For the sake of argument, we just call them mice, because it is easier to say and the girls have no idea what a vole is). I looked out to see a splotch of brown on the lawn. "Don't let Ivory touch it!" I said.
"Wait, it's not dead!" he exclaims. This I had to see because mice are fast and I couldn't imagine one just sitting there waiting to be discovered. I picked up Ivory on my way there so I knew exactly where she was and I looked at the mouse just sitting there. I was pretty sure it must be poisoned already. Rodents don't just stay still unless they are in a dark space and this was one right out in the open. Tyler said he was going to kill it and I told him I didn't want to watch (especially since he went and picked up a big rock. Yuck!) He could see the distaste on my face and he said, "Should I catch it?" He got a big jar and put it right over the sitting mouse (by this time, I had no doubt the mouse was not feeling well). I decided to wander back into the house and as I was walking across our patio area I heard a rustle at my feet. My first thought was that something was down there, but then I figured I was just being paranoid since I had just seen a mouse. It was probably just the wind. Even as I decided upon this verdict, a snake slithers right out in front of me. "Snake!!" I yell and Tyler comes bounding around the corner. This snake was much more lively than the mouse so we chased him around and invited the kids out to see him. Tyler put on some gloves and caught him so the girls could touch his scales. I think Tyler has lost the boyhood vigor of grabbing a snake without gloves (he has been peed on one too many times). He tossed the snake in a jar too and decided to take the girls to a nearby field to release them. I snapped a picture of his prizes before he took off.



I told him not to release them together because the snake was likely to eat the mouse and then be poisoned as well (talk about a meal that doesn't agree with you). When he returned he told me that the snake was headed in the direction of the mouse when he left. My guess is one less mouse and snake in the world.
But people, that was so weird to find one so quickly after the other. I apparently need to watch my step in the yard.