Rattlesnakes

I can’t imagine living in a better place than where I’m at now, 900,000 acres of mountains, forest, trees and animals. I’ve learned not to eat things out of the forest without proper identification and I’ve learned this is NOT a petting zoo… some of the animals are dangerous. Blue hasn’t learned that. She chases bears, squirrels, deer, coyotes, feral hogs and anything else that happens to catch her fancy. We only have two venomous snakes up here, rattlesnakes and copperheads. Blue found out you don’t fuck with rattlesnakes.

We’re walking with her and she is bounding along like the goofball she is, looks to the left and jumps in the tall grass. She immediately jumps back and is holding her paw up. I see blood on her foot and a rattlesnake off to the side. I pulled her away, ran back to the house, jumped in the car drove through the field. Helen and I got her loaded in car and hauled ass. No vets were open and no emergency vets within an hour of here so we took her to Gainesville. The doctors and technicians at Animal Emergency are great! Their dedication and skills are superb. They saved Blue’s life! After a night in the hospital she is at home recuperating and doing well.

I’ve had 7 or 8 run ins with rattlesnakes since moving here but this was the first time with injuries. I didn’t photograph the snake for obvious reasons but here is a photo of one on the driveway. It was the only time I had my camera during a run in.