I know I have just done a post about dogs but Gilda the extremely fat but short legged sausage dog yesterday saved the life of our neighbour Luigina. I know I hinted that Gilda was a good for nothing fat little eating machine but yesterday at about twelve minutes past two in the afternoon she saved her owner’s life.
Luigina who is a spritely 87 years old was brutally stalked and then attacked by a very long snake as she walked across the garden on the way to feed the chickens.The beast of a snake was slithering through the grass with the intentions of impaling its fangs into Luigina’s heel. Fortunately Luigina saw the snake and realising she was in mortal danger she let out a piercing scream and clutched her hands to her breast, OK my imagination is running away a bit but she did shout bestia and wave her hands about a little. (A picture of Luigina can be seen here L’orto and the Fairies)
The snake was badly mauled by Gilda so this is the best I can do
Gilda who heard her mistress’s distress came running to her rescue. Her tail was in the full mast attack position and her belly was clear of the ground by at least 2.5 centimetres. Gilda pounced on the snake and pinning it down with her front paws, she sunk her teeth into the middle of the snake and gave it a really good shake.
Donna our guestaway who is not scared of snakes dead or alive estimated the snake to be about this big.
Upon further inspection by our resident expert (again Donna) the snake was deemed to be a Natrix Natrix or to the uneducated who don’t speak Latin the common grass snake, but as Luigina pointed out it could have been a Vipera Aspis (viper).
I couldn’t find a picture of a Vipera aspis. But this is a Dodge Viper and it will have to do
Luigina is full of praise for Gilda and the snake is still on show for anyone who wants to come and have a look. This coming Saturday Luigina will bury the snake with full military honours near the black fig tree behind the chicken run. Attendees are expected to wear black or full military dress uniform.
- The mother of Mrs Sensibles discussing the graveside military honours include firing a volley over the grave
Englishman in Italy 
ahh… che piacere! only in Italy. Grazie, grazie.
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wonderful, brings back memories of summers in Italy and everybody being scared of vipere…
I like that Dodge Viper by the way, did you get a free test drive 🙂 ?
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No such luck. I love the look the soldier is giving Mrs Sensible’s mum in the last picture.
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it’s a kind of look that says “are you serious? full military honours for a snake? do you mean Berlusconi?”
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oooohhhh, poor Berlusconi.
I know Monti is doing his best but Berlusconi made the TV news programs more interesting. It was always fun listening to his latests exploits and gaffs
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I don’t think “poor” and “Berlusconi” go very well in the same sentence… 😉
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Ok I take it back, but if I say he is a bit of a cad, I am going to upset some people and they will get their knickers in a twist and start complaining on my blog.. 😦
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ok I will be more diplomatic next time…. I’ll call him that f***** Mr B, how’s that… 😉 and only on my blog…
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🙂 My lips are sealed. 🙂 Anyway back to the snake killing dog Gilda
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p.s. you can delete all the above….
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Wouldn’t dream of it.
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What is that green thing with the glasses – I dont think I’ll find one in Tesco
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Hi Trixfred. It’s a snake tsk tsk and they are Ray Ban glasses not your everyday run of the mill sunglasses this is Italy. 🙂
It is a zucchini I think they call them trumpet zucchini, Luigina grew it in the summer. And I loaned it my sunglasses for the day. She plants them below the fig trees and they grow like ivy up and into the branches.
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You are too funny! (and so is the look of the gentleman in the last photo) So glad she’s safe!
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Thank you 🙂 But this was supposed to be a serious post Luigina might have been killed!!! If fact Gilda might have been killed. It took Luigina a couple of good swings of the sweeping brush to stop Gilda from eating the snake.
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YIKES! Not funny at all!
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🙂
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Oh I forgot to say.. That really is Mrs Sensible’s mother.
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A hilarious episode. 😆
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Thank you, but to be honest it is just another average day of life in Italy.
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Your nonchalance is astounding ……talk about the British stiff upper lip. 😆
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🙂
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Go Gilda!
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Same you don’t have a photo of the remnants of the snake, I’m curious to know what species it was…. Pour Luigina. Poor snake, too – I have five at home.
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You have five Luigina’s? Spiders!!!! How do you cope?
I have a pic of the snake. It is badly chewed and shaken but, I will try to upload it for you.
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Brill. We have four pythons, called “the Daltons”, and a red rat snake called “Speedy” (I’ll let you guess why).
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Dear Multifarious meanderings,
Here is a link to Donna who was our Guestaway. You will find 2 pics of the killer snake and a picture of Donna with the medals that Gilda was awarded for killing the snake.
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/donnartw2012/1/1352919001/tpod.html#_
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My dear pecora nera I lllove you! Ahahah!
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Hi Old Hen.
I am glad you like it. 🙂
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