My hero

For those of you who don't know I have a complete phobia of snakes. Bugs, spiders...I can handle those, but you put a snake in the picture and I kind of freak out. This morning I was out back watering my flowers, and Kes was with me when suddenly she screamed "Nake! Nake!" I turned around and sure enough, our cat had brought us a little "present" in a dead snake! (The cat has been doing this lately...bringing me little "gifts" and leaving them at the base of the stairs outside--I don't know what her thought process is...Hmmm, Riki seems a little down, I am sure this half eaten bird will cheer her right up!) Anyways...gross! And of course the snake was the kicker--dead or not, it still struck fear into my heart, and I scooped Kes up and ran into the house. Unfortunately, Levi is in Texas for the week, and I was NOT going to leave that thing decorating my patio for a week. So I was forced to...make Bridger take care of it. (For those of you think this was cowardly of me--which it was--Bridger likes snakes and had no problem compiling to my demands) I walked all the way around the house (to avoid going by it) and got him a shovel out of the shed. He didn't want my shovel, however, and picked the nasty slimy thing up with his BARE HANDS--that's right, his BARE HANDS! Lets go take that to the garbage (thank heavens Monday is garbage pick up day!) Wew! Disaster adverted--I can go outside this week! On my way back around to put the shovel away, I noticed our cat playing with something in my tall flowers--I leaned over to see yet another snake slithering around. I responded by dropping the shovel, screaming, and running for the house at a full on run (good thing no kids where in my path because they would have gotten leveled!) When I got inside Bridger informed me in a matter of fact voice that he would take care of it after Mouse (the cat) killed it! Sure enough two minutes later, Mouse deposited it at her shrine and Bridger went and threw yet another snake in the trash! As Bailey and Kes are as deeply afraid of snakes as I am, we all hailed the cat and Bridger as Heroes! Later, when I asked Bridger (who was making a snake patrol outside) to come in and clean his room, Bailey quickly spoke up on his behalf--"But mom, he is a Hero which means he can do whatever he wants! And I don't think he wants to clean his room. Sorry." The day progressed and I forgot about my traumatic snake morning. Some friends came over and we had a little play group-and we where having a great time chatting and the kids where playing-when I looked over to see Mouse pounce on something...that's right another snake! In his eagerness to be the "hero" again--Bridger picked it up and threw it away (mind you the garbage truck had already been to my house that day) before it was dead. I felt that I remained very calm on the exterior, but I was envisioning throwing something away only to have a snake slither out at me. So what does this mean? My garbage is going to overflow till the garbage truck comes again.