Last evening we had a rattlesnake
encounter. When I say “we” I mean me
and 4 bitches. Every night I go out and
change sprinklers, do some hand watering, enjoy the garden and I bring my girls
with me. I went out a bit later than
usual so it was more like dusk, you know the time
when it starts getting darker fast. So
I was in a casual hurry.
I was at the back of the house and getting ready to go over a wall and turn off
some sprinklers when I heard the ominous sound of a rattle. It did not register
as an actual snake just a weird noise. I turned around and all 4 bitches were in
a surround face off with a rattlesnake from a cautiously curious distance. I could see the
snake’s blurry outline in the dark on the lawn. The rattle was surprisingly
loud. To be honest it is the first time I have actually ever heard a real one
in person. The
dogs were in a cartoon like stare down mode. It flashed thru my mind how do I get all 4 dogs away from this
terribly interesting development. It was just a quick flash because I did not
have time to contemplate or make a plan but I was torn between calling the dogs
to me or getting Yanni out to help. I
opted for a little of both. I called
all the dogs to me in a very OH MY GOD GET OVER HERE CAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO DIE IF YOU DONT voice. To my surprise
all 4 dogs came to me and went right in the house with little to no argument. In a breathless panicked voice I shouted to
Yanni about the snake. It took me some
time to be coherent and get all the words out properly. He jumped and went to get the snake wrangling
tools. By then it was pretty dark. I went back outside to keep an eye on the
snake but as I got close the rattling started back up and so I backed away. I never saw him, I just heard him. This was
one mad snake. If the loudness of the
rattle counts for anything, it was also a big one.
Yanni finally arrived with tools but the flashlight was not strong enough. Funny thing we always have flashlights
locked and loaded EXCEPT last night. It took forever for my nervous hands to get batteries into a flashlight that
actually worked. By this time the snake was gone. Yanni searched for it for a while but to no
avail.
I was no longer shaking but the images and feeling of doom were hard to
shake. I slept restless and it was
still on my mind when I woke. There are
images from life that seer themselves into your brain and this is one of
them. If I were a painter I would be painting it
now. Three Staffords and a Bull Terrier of different ages
and experience surrounding a snake rearing up in the lawn and the light
very low is without a doubt a once in a lifetime sight to behold. The expression on each dog was different
but all were cautious except Scarlet who was mildly more interested in jumping
up to get a fig out of an overhanging branch. Looking back now, I think if the snake had struck it
would have been game on. The other three would have torn it up. As it
was they were waiting for it to move. As long as the snake was still I had time. I probably only had seconds because it was just a matter of time before one of them decided to make the snake move. I really did not want to take a dog to emergency and pay $2,000 and deal with the after care.
I have lived in rattlesnake country for over 30 years. We have had numerous encounters. Our experience here is real. It does not come from book or videos. I have had one dog bitten. It was in the back of a hind leg so I figure
she stepped on it. There was one encounter
between Madison and a big one at my old house that turned out well but this one
is by far the most dramatic.
Being dark definitely added a new twist on it. I
love it here. This is my home. This is my crazy ass dog’s home too. This is also the home of numerous creatures
that carry all sorts of different degrees of difficulty. I guess it is like a video game and we just
reached a new level.
