Shakin' In Ma Boots

Does anyone else have an extreme fear of snakes? Cause I sure do. If I see one, I scream my head off, yell profanities, and it's like I black out...start seeing spots, and just run. Yes, true story.

About 2 weeks ago I noticed the sunset was exceptionally beautiful that night and wanted to take some pictures. I loaded the dogs up in the Gator and headed out. It got dark, so we headed back to the house. The dogs ran out into the yard and after about 5 minutes started barking the "there's an intruder/something is not safe" bark.

I looked over and they were both barking at the ground in the tall grass next to our lawn. I knew there was probably a snake there, so I started calling them to come inside. And then I had a mini anxiety attack...I heard a rattle. A loud, could hear it from 75 feet away, rattle. Which means this was not some innocent bull snake or anything. A RATTLESNAKE!!! WHAT!??!?!

I start FREAKING out and running like a banshee around the yard trying to get the dogs to come over to me. I'm sure I looked like a fool. They were having none of it. I started saying things like, "Load up!" "Let's go inside!" and "Treats!" which usually work to get the dogs to come to me. Nothing was working and I was still freaking out.

I finally got Smoke to come over to me and put him inside. Harley was still barking and growling at the thing, and I could still hear the rattle. Then I see him jump back! The snake had lunged at him! I ran inside, got the bag of treats and ran to the edge of my lawn. I started throwing treats at Harley, and finally got him distracted enough. I threw them closer and closer to me, so that he was onto the lawn where I could see everything creepy and crawly in the grass in case it decided to chase me or something. I put him inside too, and tried to decide what my next plan would be.

I thought, "I'll put on my tall rubber boots, go out there with a shovel and cut off its head. No, too close. I'll bring my gun. No, that means I'll have to have good aim. SHOTGUN! YES! That will work!" I then decided that since it was dark, I was home alone, and shooting tiny hot bullets into tall, dry grass wouldn't be the best of plans. So I stayed inside.

I researched on PetMD (yes, they have one for pets too!) to figure out what I should do, and be prepared for next time (which will hopefully never happen!).

Patrick finally gets home and I say, "Did you know there were rattlesnakes out here?!?! They dogs almost got attacked!"  And replayed the whole story for him. He says, "Well yeah, there's probably hundreds of them out there. There are probably some in your garden too, with all of that tall grass." Well THAT makes me feel a whole lot better...NOT!

So I told him, "You better tell your dad to come over here TO-MOR-ROW and cut down all of this tall grass and bale it so no snakes are out there. So what happened the next day.....

 

You bet your sweet ass that grass was getting cut down! The snake was right by the two white dandelion heads in the bottom picture.

Do you have snakes where you live? Have any crazy stories like this???