Snake Charmer

We live in rattlesnake country.  Rattlesnakes have been known to try to sneak into the dollar store downtown to do a little shoppin'.  My sister has a den living under her house...they have names.  She hired a snake wrangler to try to evict them.  They chose to stay... so she is eliminating them by force one by one.  As you may know rattlesnakes are dangerous and aggressive.  They strike first and ask questions later.   In our county we are all fierce rattlesnake fighters but bull snake lovers.  We try hard not to get the two confused but sometimes it can't be helped.  This was the case for me this morning.

I usually try to get my exercise in in the a.m. before my energy runs out.  This morning I took a walk and then discovered one of our wonderful pooches had once again strung trash all over the sheep pasture so I went down to do clean up duty.  I was bent over picking up trash and too focused on cussing the dogs to notice I had come eye level to a snake.  He was coiled and curling head erect staring his beady little eyes at me and I was not happy to see him either!  I backed away and weighed my options.  He had to go!  My kids take the trash out and this is an unwelcome pest.  Normally my husband or my oldest...the gunslinger....would handle a situation like this but neither of them were there.  I thought about running to get the boy but as he is a senior this year I decided I may as well learn how to kill the dang things myself...picked up a cinder block..yup I'll chuck that at it and smash it...no that will just piss it off, I'm not a very accurate pitcher....ran to the house looking for the shovel...nowhere to be found....oh ya there it is in gunslingers pick-up...telltale signs he's been out in the county with his pals killing rattlers elsewhere...ok ready...aim chop!!!  What the head is still chomping....when will this thing ever stop wiggling....oh no ....oops....its a bull snake!  Oh well, good for me!  I win the bravery award for today.  Realizing of course I didn't go it alone completely...nope my motto is pray first....and then do whatever God is leading you to do.  That is the only way to make it through scary, or uncertain, or emergency situations.

"God is my refuge, and God is my rock, a very present help in times of trouble..."  Have a great day and remember sometimes a bull snake is a rattlesnake in disguise!