A two metre long king brown snake
Crept into the house one day
And Puss untaught and unknowing
Thought it a game she could play

Not so the snake.It coiled swiftly
And struck with envenomed fang
Her golden eyes darkened to pewter
From her mouth yellow froth sprang..

She cried out to me helpless, entreating.
There was nothing I could have done
A half grown cat , a full sized snake
One strike and her race was run

A city girl in an old country house
My husband had gone for the day
With a baby due in a couple of weeks
All I could do was pray.

A merciful Someone answered.
With a last cry she was gone.
I found a box and laid her in it
Then I buried her under a stone.

I hated that snake for killing my cat
With a hatchet I cut off its head
And left it slow writhing in deaththroes
As I pulped it into a smear of red

I threw the snake out into the paddock
From where an eagle bore it away
In taloned grasp with wide, strong wings
The snake was its natural prey.

I washed the floor, then did it again
At the place where I saw Puss die
Then, I made a brew in the family pot
And drank until it was dry








see author'snotes at the end.................................,
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This is a true story. We were living in a flea infested rathole of a house somewhere a long way South East of Adelaide on the shore of Lake Albert. Snake country. My mpther was nearly full term with her seventh child and was alone in the house with a sick two year old and Puss, a small cat with huge golden eyes. She had walked into the kitchen one rainy night, sat by the fire until bedtime and then curled up into the tiniest ball of fur on Mum's bed. Mum found she was having another baby shortly after that,
so the litttle cat stayed and lapped up saucers of nilk because ( Mum said) the cat had known she was expecting.
It was 1946, I was at school with my two elder sisters, and the two boys had gone with Dad and taken Sargie the dog with them. Mum's precious two year old son, having kept her up nearly all night now slept soundly in his cot, leaving
his mother a couple of hours to rest if not to sleep.







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