Mercy!
I am taking care of a house for some friends, getting it ready to put on the market. The house is definitely 'in the country' in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.
Yesterday, we were taking a break at the patio table out by the swimming pool. I noticed a grey cat sitting at the edge of the lawn by the wooded area. I tried to scat it away, but it wouldn't budge. It didn't look like a regular old house kitty. Maybe like a cross between a wild cat and a house cat. Sharp pointed ears with little tufts.
As I attempted to make it leave, it just sat and lookd at me. So I went to the edge of the pool area and scatted it again. Now I notice what it is looking at! A rattlesnake. About four and a half to five feet long. Eight rattles and a button.
I went to the fence that separates it from the property next door and screamed for the man that lives there. Over and over....finally one of his kids showed up at the window and got his dad. The man put on his boots and got his gun and came over and shot it! Good shooting, too. Only one shot and a vary dead rattlesnake minus a head! I was ever so thankful.
I had been up there and stayed the night the week before. I had my sweet Sassy with me and she was all over that yard. She loved it up there. Well, guess what? Now she has to stay home when I go there. If she had been there she would have chased that cat and ended up in the middle of a big rattler.
Now she will just have to be sad when I leave. My gosh! I don't even want to think about what
could have happened.