It's snake feeding day, and they each get two mice. They were both about done with their first mouse, so I got another one out of the jar to get ready for the second round. I was paying more attention to the mice than to the snakes, and when I looked up the one on the top shelf was already coming out towards me. (I was sitting on the floor, so the snake was at eye level). I started to reach up, to make the snake back into the cage and then give it the mouse, but by then the snake on the bottom was partially out of the cage and struck at the mouse as I was raising my arm.

I went :eek: and dropped the mouse.

It started walking over towards my bed, and the snake who had struck at it started following. Meanwhile, the top snake was still coming out towards my face looking for another mouse.

I used my left hand to tap the bottom snake on the head, causing it to go back into the cage, while I grabbed the mouse with my right hand. I stuck the mouse right in the face of the top snake, and kept pushing back until it was on the shelf again. Once there, I just held the mouse by the tail until the snake grabbed it and started constricting it.

The bottom snake was coming out again by then, so I grabbed the remaining mouse and tossed it in the cage. The snake went back in and grabbed the mouse, and I closed the cage.

It all happened in a matter of seconds, but they were interesting seconds. I wish I'd been filming it this time.