I said "that's poisoness" (or as my husband keeps correcting me "venemous)! That's a Copperhead!" He didn't think so, but thankfully he erred on the side of caution. I kept watch while he went to get both of our shovels from the garage. And then he proceeded to herd the snake out of the flower bed and I went to get an old garbage can.
For some reason we could not bring ourselves to kill him, so we got him in the garbage can and called animal control. Well they only come out of the snake is in your house. I said to Ken "bring it in the house and tell them to come and get it!" He laughed and said "yeah like if it's in the back yard it won't bite us!" So we decided to just take him out to a nature preserve about 15 minutes from our house and let him go.
I am just so thankful that Ken was not bitten when he reached down to pull the weeds! And the kids were right there within 8 feet, because they were helping to haul the pulled weeds away! I am also thankful that we got the snake out of our yard before we had let the dogs out, because they always go over there to sniff and check out what has been there overnight!
Thank you God for keeping us safe!