The joys of living out in the country

So I'm cooking dinner yesterday and Tyler was playing outside in the front yard. Actually, he had been playing right on the front porch, but was also walking around in the yard. All of the sudden I hear him call me...."mommy! come here and look at this!!!" I could hear in his voice that he really wanted me to come out there, so I turned the burners down on the stove and walked out onto the porch. He was sitting on the edge of the porch, looking at the house....he pointed under the outdoor table and said, "look, a BIG caterpillar!!" I'm thinking to myself, "what in the world is he talking about?!?" when I see what he is pointing at.......A SNAKE!!!!!! OMG, I freaked!! I called him into the house right away and about that time my cellphone went to ringing.....Zane was calling to let me know he was close to home. Perfect timing!!!! I told him what was on the porch, and he said he'd take care of it when he got there. In the meantime, I stayed on the porch to keep an eye on it. Long story short, the snake is no longer with us........I felt bad killing it, but I will do what I need to do to keep Tyler safe! I'm still not sure what kind of snake it was, but I can almost guarantee it won't be the last one we see since we live so far out in the country. Fun, fun!!!! ACK!!!!!!!!!