I met a Rattlesnake yesterday!
 

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. :eek:

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. :eek: 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.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

OMG, what a scary ordeal...Thank God for that 'sure shot' neighbor...We all have to look up, down and all around before we go outside....And also listen!
So glad your babies are safe !!!

I met a Rattlesnake yesterday
 

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: That "IS" scary!!!

That's certainly so very true! We have tromped all over that whole area because the watering system is extensive and there were problems. We were very blessed not to have run into one before that. Well, I won't be tromping around so confidently anymore! I will now be a real scaredy cat and make my husband do all that by himself! LOL He had better be smart like the neighbor...he put his rubber boots on before coming over to deal with it even though he had his gun.

The funny thing is, he never rattled and never coiled. I thought that odd. Maybe he was just trying to get away from the cat. Surely the cat wouldn't have attacked it. I don't know....but I feel like I saved the cat's life by shooing it away from the snake.

Ugly thing!!

Oh how very scary. The "what-ifs" are endless. I am so glad that you are safe and sound and that there is one less rattlesnake in your friend's backyard.

You know...when I lived in Georgia as a girl, eons ago (LOL) we killed many of them. Some were quite large! It is never something that one becomes comfortable with.

I do like to watch that show about that one doctor that is a snake bite expert. It's amazing what they can do with antivenom but I hear it is a very painful experience, a snakebite. I shudder just to consider it!

We live right at the base of a mountain - and have hiking trails up into the mountain right there. I know there are rattlers up there bc people have seen them, but I've never seen any. Sometimes we hike an hour into the hills and I don't know what would happen if we ever got bitten by a rattler! SCARY!!!

Wear boots when you hike! They are pretty good at
camouflage...their colors blend very well with their background. I have spent a month at this place and had never seen one until this one.

THAT would freak me

OUT.

I'm so glad YOU saw it and not little Sassy

Dios Mio, :eek: that is so scary glad you are ok.

omg you had me sitting at the end of my seat...:eek:I am so glad it all turned out ok... and really I think you have the cat to thank you for really letting you know by now moving..god bless that cat...
And I was so glad to hear you did not have your yorkie with you..how scary...:eek: anne

I am so glad you are ok!! how scary that must have been

I was back up there today. Now I am all paranoid. No more bouncing around here and there. More like fearful creeping, I think.

I view the whole property differently now. Before I saw it as beautiful, peaceful and serene. This has definitely been dispelled. Now I see it as scary. How sad its that?

**sigh** Oh well.

Here is where I saw that ugly thing!

A few more...

I actually loved this place pre-rattlesnake. :(

Where the heck did my images go!!

Again...