Snakes

Sunday afternoon I took the girls to Walmart to look for birthday presents for Mike.  We got home and Mike was still at the baccalaureate service for Roby High School.  While we were at Walmart we also got a hummingbird feeder.  We have ALOT of hummingbirds and the girls really wanted to get a feeder so that we could see them more up on the porch.  We got home and went into the house, wrapped Mike's present and filled the hummingbird feeder.  We went outside to hang it.  We decided where to hang it on the porch and MK went in to get me a stool since I am short.  As I was standing there waiting watching Bria play by the front flower bed, I looked over to the right and noticed a rattlesnake!!! This is the first rattlesnake live or dead that I have seen since we moved here outside of the roundup.  Bria was great...she was only about 4-5 ft away from the snake.  I immediately told her to get in the house bc there was a snake...she obeyed beautifully!  We went inside and I grabbed the gun...unfortunately when I grabbed the magazine to load it, it was empty.  I tried to overcome my shaking hand to load the ratshot into the magazine and went out on the porch.  I shot it and it didn't move much.  I am not sure what I was expecting.  So I shot it again.  In my franticness I only put two rounds in the magazine, so I went inside and put a few more in.  I didn't want to take chances that the snake was only wounded or that somehow I had missed.  I shot it again and 2 more times....never too many times for a snake I say!!!  Of course 5 minutes after I killed it Mike came home!! I made hime do the dirty work and cut off the rattles for me!

Here is a pic of the snake after 5 rounds of ratshot...it was dead!

Before Mike cut the rattles off, he let MK practice using her bb gun and she shot it a whole bunch and then he took the shotgun and shot it close range twice to make extra sure it was dead dead and done!

Here he is holding it up so we could see about how long it was...We figured out it was about 38 inches or so without the rattles...the rattles add another two inches...pretty bit snake...and old!

Bria was being brave and holding the trash bag for Mike while he disposed of it!

And here are my rattles...they say that each rattle is a year of its life since it sheds its skin each year and that forms the rattle.  This particular snake had 11 rattles...quite the old snake! 

On a side note, I am so thankful I saw the snake sitting there before Bria got any closer!  She likes to come up on the porch between the two garden beds and had she done that the snake likely would have bitten her. Also, I am thankful that the snake was pretty calm.  The sun had just dipped down behind the house enough to shade the garden beds and the snake was sleeping in the shade.  We hadn't disturbed it (until I shot it)...it was not defensive.  It was minding its own business.  God was looking out for us and protecting us I know!