Last night, at around 9 PM, I took the puppies out to go potty. Dobby was outside with me, Buddha was standing in the doorway of the sliding glass door. Dobby had just gone pee like a good boy and I gave him his treat. As I was doing so, I looked up and saw a snake, against the wall of the house, probably two feet away from us...it was close. It almost looked dead as it wasn't moving at all. The snake was short, but thick. I wasn't sure what kind it was, so hurried Dobby inside and pushed Buddha back inside, closing the door behind me. I told Shane there was a snake next to the sliding glass door. He said to get the dogs back and he would check it out...it was a RATTLESNAKE. My first encounter with one! I put all the pups in the back office. Shane went out and got rid of the snake. He used a rake to flip it out of the yard, while the snake was coiling up and striking at him. He threw it over the fence, but he said he didn't trust it and wanted it dead. So, he got his big tile scraper made of heavy metal, went out with the flashlight, and chopped off it's head. No more snake!
Shane said we were lucky as it was a young rattlesnake which has concentrated venom and could have killed Dobby in an instant. I'm glad Dobby didn't notice it or try to sniff it. It gave me the creeps to go back out in the dark with them, knowing that it was a close call to a rattlesnake bite. Most of the time they show up at houses along the base of the mountains, not in town...but there's always a first!
This morning, the dead rattlesnake was still there, although the ants were already feasting on him, and he blends in with the sand pretty good...but I took some pictures...you can tell it's young, due to it's length, but not any less scary!
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| Decapitated body of rattlesnake |
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| It's tail and rattle |
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| Head |
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| Comparison of snake size |
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| Next to Shane's foot |
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