Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Critters and snakes in the news

 by Julie Carter

Along with rains, floods, summer events and flowering gardens, this time of year brings with it the usual onslaught of reports about critters that either crawl or stalk.

Reports of big snakes, mountain lions and coyotes are filtering through the social networks, coffee shops and spit-and-whittle club members.

A few years ago, a news article indicated that snake populations worldwide seem to be declining. My personal view of this was one for celebration; however, a British biologist was calling for a worldwide study to determine what is causing this and how to correct it. The article seemed to have missed the numbers of snakes gone missing in Taiwan and China where they drink snake blood as an aphrodisiac.

If you have ever worked in rural country where one eye was devoted to what you were doing and the other was on guard duty watching for a venomous snake, you tend to have a little different take on the situation. I’m certain that particular biologist never carried a gun so he could first shoot a snake before he could turn the well water on for the cattle.

Local news is warning that the warmer nights along with the rains are bringing out the rattlers and vet clinics are reporting an upswing in the number of dogs bitten by snakes.

Meanwhile in the quiet hilltop city of Los Alamos, N.M., there is a mountain lion that has been brazenly on the prowl in the town for a few months threatening pets and putting residents on the alert while walking the canyon trails. Authorities have launched a trapping plan that has yet to discourage or capture the prowler.

Ruidoso-area residents were put on alert over a rabid fox that attacked a woman and more recently, bears have been very aggressive in the Lincoln National Forest. In two separate incidents, men hunting antler sheds were attacked by a bear.

Time to pay attention!

PawPaw's daycare

When old cowboys go to the house, so to speak, they sometimes take up caring for the grandbabies. In this particular case, the cowboy calls his part in this project “PawPaw's Daycare.”

All was well in the neighborhood until folks around there had their chickens disappearing in broad daylight. A shout from Grandmaw was about to change that.

"Get your gun!" she yelled from the yard.

As PawPaw stepped out the door to see what the commotion was about, he saw a fat, well-fed coyote high tailing it across the pasture. He raised the 30/30, took aim, squeezed the trigger and missed, but shot close enough to spin the coyote's trajectory another direction.

He levered in another live one. The coyote came out of the sage still running full tilt at 200 yards out and this time, ran right into a speeding bullet.

Admitting to the possibility of "luck" in the shot, the cowboy explained that the coyote was a Progressive, one who had been eating his chickens without working for them.

"The capitalist in me just couldn't stand it," he said with a grin. "But, once you make a nice shot, you just go home and live on the legend.”

The neighbors, mostly retirees, were impressed over the excitement in the 'hood' and from porches and rocking chairs everywhere you could hear conversations such as: "Bertie, you want to drive over to the Dusty Canyon outfit, hang around and watch that guy cap another chicken-stealin' coyote?"

Country living brings entertainment in the most basic of ways.

Julie is NOT entertained by snakes of any kind and can be reached for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com.