Minding her own business, sweeping off her walkway in front of her home in the Lockhart community, Loraine Dean came across a devious looking serpent who seemed to have nothing but mayhem on its mind.

    “I just don’t like snakes,” Dean says. “It doesn’t matter what kind it is. If it slithers and I can get to it, it’s gonna be dead.”

    Dean is 90 years young with a birthday coming up in September. Described as a spunky gal who has that take charge attitude, Dean says she never considered calling anyone to help her get rid of the snake that ended up measuring over six feet in length.

    “I just ran to the shed and got me a hoe,” Dean says chuckling. “I gave it a good whack and that was it.”

    This is not the first time Dean has had dealings with a serpent. Her son, Stanley Dean, had to shoot a snake that had gotten into her home. The snake had made it into her bedroom.

    “I’m just glad she got it before it got into the house,” Stanley Dean says. “But I really wish she would get someone’s attention next time and not try to handle it all by herself.”

    But handle it she did, to the delight and admiration of family and friends.

    “I’m proud of her spunk,” says Elizabeth Ryan, Loraine Dean’s granddaughter. “She’s a special lady.”

    It is speculated the snakes that the elder Dean sees from time to time are trying to get into the chimney to reach the young birds there. The home, originally built about 70 years ago by her husband Charlie Dean, may not provide some easy access points in which to enter as the home continues to settle.

    “Dad has been doing some renovations on the home as needed,” Elizabeth Ryan said of her father, Stanley Dean. “But like all older homes, some cracks go unnoticed for quite some time before they are discovered.”

    At any rate, if a snake has ambitions of trying to infiltrate Loraine Dean’s home, they had better be much more stealthy than the last one.

    “If I see them, I’ll get them,” Loraine Dean says, chuckling again. “This hoe is always close by.”