Snaaaaakkkkeeeee - but a good snake ...

I usually walk around the yard when the kids want to play outside just double checking there isn't a sneaky snake cruising through. I have a stick about 6 feet long that I brush over the grass. Well, today I spotted something. Yikes! It was a snake. Big long one but it didn't look like a rattler. But then I did see a big rattle on the end but that was by its head. Weird. I sent the kids to get the neighbor and actually it was the ranch hand Pablo who came down. Turns out it was a beautiful reddish color gopher snake who was finishing his lunch -- a rattlesnake. Once I knew it wasn't something that was going to possibly kill me or make me so sick I'd wish I were dead, I got a kick out of looking at up closer. Pablo tapped it and it moved under a tree. It was probably about 5 feet long. And he just had a little bit more of his lunch to gulp down -- that's why I saw the rattle near his head. Patrick and I watched him slide off back into the orchard. Maggie was literally shaking. I tried to get her to look at him just so she could see the difference between a gopher snake and a rattlesnake. She wouldn't have anything to do with it and went back in the house. I'm really thankful that he had already killed a rattlesnake. But I'm not really thrilled to know that even the big gopher snake is still roaming around out there.

joy