Backyard safaris.

My backyard is large and verdant. We have this great backyard view because there is a greenbelt so all you can see is trees and wildlife. This is a awesome environment for the kids. We have put a two story play ground back there, they have a sand box a garden and all sorts of paths and little hidden areas in which to pretend and get lost.
 Since the only thing that separates us from the greenbelt is a back alley neighborhood drive way to all the garages we have a large amount of wildlife that works it's way to the houses. We have every thing you can think of.
 My wife, lovely women that she is, love animals and nature. She likes to go on safaris with the kids in the back yard. Well one day while working in the garden she found a little garden snake and caught it to show the kids. As you can imagine the kids were enthralled. We normally catch lizards and geckos, we see all manner of birds from hawks to blue jays. We have quite the mammal issue as well with skunks and raccoons, squirrels and armadillos, with the occasional possum.
  Well all this leads to the point of this blog. Because of all this familiarity with the local wildlife under my wife's tutelage my children have no fear of animals. One day early this summer I was in the house sitting in a chair while the kids played in the back yard. Blissful quiet, such a rare commodity in this house. I was reading a book when I hear the ruckus and the laughing and yelling coming my way. I'm used to this so I really don't pull my self out of the book. My son Cooper runs up to me and yells "look what we found" and literally throws a living snake into my lap. This brown snake was as thick around as my thumb and about two feet long. My kids learned some new and interesting words that day.