Another One Bites the Dust
So after all my years here in Rattlesnake country, I had never seen one. The closest I ever came was just an echo of a rattle. I was beginning to believe that it was just a conspiracy of the world against me, pretending there are rattlesnakes.
I now live on a huge greenbelt with it's own resident PACK of coyotes, so the wildlife level is pretty healthy. Including, a bunch of rattlers. We now have a garden, and while planting strawberries, a young rattler came out. It came out of the strawberry pack my mother was planting. It had been living in the rock wall we recently built, I assume. It could have bitten her. And the young ones can't control the amount of venom injected. She comes tearing in yelling at me to kill a garden snake. I argue that a garden snake is good but I'll put it over our now obviously useless snake guard. I start laughing as soon as I see the little sucker. Yeah, so it's really hard to identify a diamond backed, triangle shaped venomous head with a rattle for a tail (although, it only had one rattle section). But the dogs are now getting interested in it. What could I do? I couldn't let it live in my yard. Not with Mom and the doggies. And my neighbors dogs just got tagged, probably by this little beauty.
I hated to do it, and I really hesitated while Mom was screaming and freaking out, but I had to face facts. I had to kill it. Man, I totally suck. There really was no alternative. But, I have learned one thing. Never tell your already psychotic mother that the harmless snake is really pretty deadly.
I now live on a huge greenbelt with it's own resident PACK of coyotes, so the wildlife level is pretty healthy. Including, a bunch of rattlers. We now have a garden, and while planting strawberries, a young rattler came out. It came out of the strawberry pack my mother was planting. It had been living in the rock wall we recently built, I assume. It could have bitten her. And the young ones can't control the amount of venom injected. She comes tearing in yelling at me to kill a garden snake. I argue that a garden snake is good but I'll put it over our now obviously useless snake guard. I start laughing as soon as I see the little sucker. Yeah, so it's really hard to identify a diamond backed, triangle shaped venomous head with a rattle for a tail (although, it only had one rattle section). But the dogs are now getting interested in it. What could I do? I couldn't let it live in my yard. Not with Mom and the doggies. And my neighbors dogs just got tagged, probably by this little beauty.
I hated to do it, and I really hesitated while Mom was screaming and freaking out, but I had to face facts. I had to kill it. Man, I totally suck. There really was no alternative. But, I have learned one thing. Never tell your already psychotic mother that the harmless snake is really pretty deadly.