I wasn't going to blog this morning, but I've had some adventures. Here they are:
My husband and I have always said that when you least expect it you will run into a rattlesnake. Sure enough, I haven't seen one all summer long and had more or less forgotten about them. Then yesterday evening at sunset, I let the dogs out in their "snake proof" enclosure.
I see Angel, carefully tip-toeing toward something (she's not one to rush anything, thank God) as she started to bend her head to sniff, I realize it's a snake that looks like a rattlesnake, so I yell at her to stop. I have trained them to stop and this time she obeys and tip toes away.
Soldier, on the other hand, has missed his walks so much this summer that he developed a new hobby: Killing any critters he can get a hold of. I guess he feels a dog has to have some fun. He is right behind Angel when the snake lets out a big hiss and he sees it. I yell stop, he stops, but can't contain himself and starts again. I run about 15 feet in 0 time, grab his tail with my bad hand and arm and his collar with my right hand, and with my injured arm and my right, not so good arm, I get super strong from adrenaline and I lift and drag this 77 lb dog into the house, losing my slipper in the process.
Since I don't know if Angel got bitten, I grab my Benadryl that I keep for situations like this and shove three of them down her throat. I look her over and think she is OK, but I start with the three. I try to remember how long it took for Bandit to show symptoms when he was bitten, but my adrenaline is pumping and I can't remember.
So I go out to deal with the snake. In the four years I have lived here, I have never had to kill a rattlesnake. I have been able to lift them up on a shovel and carry them out on the land and release them. The light shovel was in the shed yesterday and I didn't feel comfortable leaving the snake to go and get it as it was getting dark and Samson has dug so many holes for a snake to hide in. Feeling threatened, the snake was getting aggressive, and I felt I had to kill it. I could barely lift the heavy shovel that was out there and I know I never would have been able to lift that snake and carry it anywhere. I hated to have to do this. I absolutely hated to have to kill it.
When the snake was dead, I realized I only had one slipper on. What an idiot one can be, barefoot with a rattlesnake! I put my boots on and tried to put the dead snake on the shovel to carry it into our field, but I couldn't lift it. I hate to have become so old and weak too this summer. I finally just had to drop the snake in the yard and deal with it this morning.
I'm not going to show you the photos of the dead snake. Instead, look at this critter:
I looked out the window early this morning and saw a bobcat come wandering across my yard. It settled down only partly in view behind my picnic table. (Oh, these wild critters, don't they know I want their picture? They never cooperate, that's for sure.) I waited a long time and then it saw something and crouched and jumped.
I don't think it caught anything but I got a snippet of a picture that I enlarged. Taken through my window, I think it gives a rather impressionistic view of the cat in action.
When it started to leave, I ran out my front door. It heard me and turned around for a moment, then went on its way.
Being a cat it just sauntered off, didn't run, didn't look scared, just nonchalantly went on its way and disappeared behind a juniper tree.
This is a Stink Beetle, there are two kinds, I don't know which one this is. It has an interesting defense mechanism, I wanted to show you. Since the bug my friend AJ-Oaks blogged about on her blog A Little Farm With A Big Heart waited for her to get her camera, I told this bug to wait too, and it did. Then I sort of poked it a little and it went into its defensive position and let out the stinky stuff.
After I got my picture, I put the shovel back in the shed and went in the house. When I came out a while later, the bug was still on its head, which made me feel bad. I had to laugh at myself, but I really felt bad I had disturbed it. After a while though it got down and went on its way.
So not a boring moment these last few days.
