Snake

Saw our first snake tonight. Our neighbors here in the volunteer campground were sitting out behind their trailer and heard a hissing noise. JJ had disconnected his water hose and was pulling it in to roll it up. Upon further investigation of the hissing, they discovered a diamond back rattler caught in a roll of chicken wire. It was evident that it had recently eaten as was too large in the middle to squeeze through the holes in the wire. Then it had turned back on itself and had entangled itself even further. The hissing was actually the sound of its tail rattling rapidly in anger. He was not a happy camper.

Our friend, Shiny,another volunteer, heard the commotion and went to check it out. I went with her. When she saw the situation she immediately wanted to help it. Luckily there is a snake grabber stored in teh volunteer house for just such an emergency. It looks like a tool for grabbing something on a high shelf, but the handle is about 5 feet long, to keep the animal at a safe distance.

After a few minutes with a very unhappy fellow, S finally grabbed the guy just behind his head so he could not harm anyone. Then another volunteer cut the mesh with a wire cutter so that the snake could be freed. He was then taken quite a distance away and released in an arroyo to recover himself. I’ll bet he will have a story to tell his family when gets gets back home.