Saturday, July 23, 2016

Saturday encore ~ Care to join me for a little rattlesnake wrangling?

This post is from July 29, 2015. The snake population this year seems to have diminished – 
I've only had to relocate one rattlesnake so far, and it was a non-blog-worthy event. 
Let's hope it stays that way. 
(Can you hear the universe laughing, now that I've said that out loud? What an idiot.) 

 ***

It was around 7 o'clock Tuesday morning. I had been in the barn tending to the herd
since 6:30. George walked over to the end stall to poop, 
then planted himself next to the back door to take a nap. 
I fetched the wheelbarrow and moved into the stall to clean up his mess.

That's when I saw the rattlesnake for the first time. He was all coiled up like a cinnamon roll,
basking in the morning sun, not two inches away from George's left front hoof.
George was oblivious, the snake was oblivious, and I was incredulous.
I asked George to walk toward me and he wouldn't.
I pulled on his grazing muzzle to lead him toward me, but that wasn't happening either.
Meanwhile, the snake stayed all coiled up without a care in the world.
Finally, I lured George away with a cookie.
The snake slithered between the stall wall and the wire kick-panel.
I closed doors and gates to keep everybody out of the stall, then ran like hell to the garage
to fetch the snake pole, with a brief stop to pick up the GoPro because:
a) what's the point of having a head-cam if you're not going to use it at a moment like this?
and b) I knew some of you would want to come along for the adventure.





7 comments:

  1. OMW OMD so glad he did not bite George. and the video scared me silly. i could never ever never do what you did...

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  2. We'll just hope the universe wasn't listening.

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  3. You're kind of like a superhero the way you get up out of bed & take on a deadly snake, all before a cup of coffee. And you even film it for everybody's enjoyment; it's like a brief episode of National Geographic, but with more donkeys.

    You mentioned a gun, which made me wonder if they're allowed to be hunted because I've always heard that rattlesnake tastes like chicken & I wondered if that were true & so I'd try it at least once, just to find out.
    But not if I had to go out & hunt it myself before coffee.

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  4. You've moved so many in the past maybe they know they are not welcome at your place anymore. Good on ya, Carson.

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  5. I love a good rattlesnake relocation video!

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  6. You are a good person. I don't think I could do that. :/

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  7. you are having wayyyyyyy to much fun entertaining us with your new camera showing off your wrangling skills, shudder, eeeekkkkk

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