a method to catch and report http options request connectivity errors

def _options_request(self, url, **kwargs):
        
        ''' a method to catch and report http options request connectivity errors '''
        
    # construct request kwargs
        request_kwargs = {
            'method': 'OPTIONS',
            'url': url
        }
        for key, value in kwargs.items():
            request_kwargs[key] = value

    # send request and handle response
        return self._request(**request_kwargs)