Despite having lived in, or near,
rattlesnake country my entire life I've never known anyone who actually
got bit by one, let alone got bit and lived to tell the tale. Until now,
that is.
We've lived in our house for over 30
years and never saw a rattlesnake on our place up until two years ago.
Since then I've killed six on our place. One was under a trash can, two
were in our driveway, two were in my wife's flower garden and I ran over
one in front of our house, although I don't think I get a notch in my
shovel for that one. Our neighborhood has become a Rattlesnake Social
Club and whenever two neighbors meet the discussion always turns to
snake sightings.
We think the influx of rattlers is
because three years ago the CCC came in and made a fire break between us
and the 8,000 acre state park next door. It was much appreciated at the
time but it drove all the moles, gophers and rats on to our property,
which the rattlesnakes eat like candy. Now many of us hate the
firebreak, thinking we'd rather take our chances in a fire rather then
die an ugly death caused by a venomous rattlesnake.
Count my neighbor as one of the firebreak
haters. That's because he's the one who was bitten by the rattlesnake.
One day last month his dog had a snake in her mouth and was shaking it
violently, which is how dogs kill snakes. Unfortunately my neighbor
didn't see the diamonds on the snake's hide and he reached down to
separate it from his dog.
El biggo mistake-o. Do not pet the snake. I repeat, DO NOT PET THE SNAKE!
I'm glad to report both victims lived. My
theory is the snake injected all its venom into the dog so there wasn't
any left for my neighbor. The vet thinks both bites were "dry," as a
quarter of all rattlesnake bites are. That means there was little venom
injected. You can't tell that to my neighbor, or his dog, because they
both suffered through three of the worst days of their lives.
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