Getting a Room?

There is an old saying I just made up:

"For everyone one rattlesnake you see, there are ten lawyers in the yellow-pages that you don't."

I say this because I wanted to take a pot-shot at lawyers. Also because I have learned a few things about rattlesnakes since our recent encounters. For one, I learned that this is the time that many start to seek hibernation quarters. Some like to hibernate in pairs and some in groups.

So, maybe, the snakes we killed were just looking to get a room and they were checking us out. Makes me wonder if we were the Hilton or the Super8. I like to think it went something like this:

"Wow! A new place! Hmmmm....we'll be sleeping here for months. Nice views. Dogs in an enclosure. A nice pony for the kids to play with. Yeah, I think this will do......"OWWWW!!! WHAT IN THE HELL??? A MOP??? I'M BEING KILLED BY A RED HEAD WITH A MOP!!! OH, THE HUMANITY!!! I"M IN A TUNNEL DRIFTING TOWARDS A BRIGHT LIGHT. AUNTY EM, AUNTY EM......"

Hopefully, the "No Vacancy" sign is out now.

Mop - 2, Rattlesnakes-0!

It happened again!

Two days after we had the first rattlesnake on our land, another one came to our door steps. Literally!

We were going out for the night and when I opened the door, right at the bottom of the steps was another rattlesnake. He was stretched out almost straight facing away from the door.

"We've got company!", I called out into the house.

"What?" The very fact that she didn't even try to guess tells you something about the possibilities. Free range cattle, coyotes, peccary, scorpion, Mormons.....

Worse than Mormons: a rattlesnake.


(I realize some might not be convinced of that point, though.)

The mop was again the first weapon of choice but with a couple misses by the Mrs., it just ended up get this snake really, really pissed off. The snake took to the offensive and came towards us. We retreated back into the house to regroup.

She was riding an adrenaline wave and in no mood for processing my suggestions. We peaked outside and he was coiled up next to the steps ready to strike. So, in another act of innovation she dropped a tool box on it. It did the trick to at least stun it long enough for her to finish it off with the mop again. This time, though, plastic pieces of the mop flew off here and there.

It's so hard to find a good mop that will withstand the killing of rattlesnakes these days. Heck, my grandmother used to tell me about her old sturdy mops when they would be down in the bayou with alligators and....

Long story and little shorter, with #2 dead she scooped into a big bucket to be dealt with later.

Oh, then we went to the opening night of the traveling production of Annie!

It's a hard-knock life. Especially for snakes.

Mop vs Snake

It seemed like the end to a practically perfect day. My wife and I had been gone all day since dawn and both of us arrived home within moments of each other long after dark. I was first there and hurried to go open the door for us and turn on the outside light. It gets pretty dark out where we live and you never know what you might bump into in the dark. I used the illumination of her truck's headlights pulling up to light my way. As planned, her truck came to a halt with the outside light was already on.

The pony was getting fed late. I brought some grass from the shed to his feeding bin. I thought he might be impatiently knocking against the corral bars but he wasn't even standing close at first. He was standing all the way over on the other side of the corral. That was a bit odd but, then again, I don't expect I will ever figure a horse out.

It's really nice to come home to see our dogs so excited to see us. It also occurred to me at that moment that they also get excited by rabbits, distant UPS trucks and blowing leaves. Maybe they were just hungry. Nonetheless, my wife let them out to run around a bit before we let them inside the house.

As we went up the stairs, I looked off to my right and about a few feet away, by the corner of our house was a rattlesnake all coiled up. Without sounding too much of an alarm, I said with a firm sense of urgency, "Get inside! Rattlesnake!"

Rattlesnakes are nothing new in the desert, of course. This was the first one I had seen on our property and a bit too close to my back door. The dogs, as much as they run around and sniff at anything, luckily, did not see the snake. My wife knew all too well the damage that a rattlesnake can do to dogs, horses and humans through her previous career as an emergency medical technician. You think you hate snakes? My wife HATES snakes with a fury reserved normally for the gods. But she is also a lady.

"Take the dogs inside, close the door and feed them.", she calmly said and she surveyed the snake from a reasonably safe vantage point. Basically, she just wanted to be left alone as she figured out how to vanquish this beast. She has experience with killing rattlesnakes whereas I do not. Even though my trust is implicit, I got the dogs safely in the house, fed and "put away" for the night and then went back to stand-by "just in case".

I really find her resourcefulness entertaining. It is not "if" with her but the delight in the "how" she will take care of things. I went back to the door and listened and didn't hear much. Slowly I opened the door and she was swinging a mop.

A mop?

Yes, a mop. It was one of those with the rolling squeeze heads and a telescoping rod. Here this darned thing was, in it's last throes, getting pummeled by my wife with a mop.

The snake is dead. I was stunned and amazed. The pony never took his nose out of the feed bin.

Oktoberfest

I work within a corporate building plaza. Well, at least as "corporate" as anything can be in the desert. During a recent lunch hour I walked over to get a sandwich from Quiznos and walked through a parking lot where some men were putting up a tent.

I was pretty excited.

They seemed pretty busy working but I shouted out: "YAY! A TENT! Is there going to be a CIRCUS?"

"No. No circus. It's a BEER tent", they replied none to happy about it.

"Oh. OK. So...no elephants?

"Nope."

"No clowns?"

"Well........"

Reincarnation

I do wonder if animals can reincarnate as humans. I don't claim to know any more about the subject than someone could read in a book on Buddhism, but I still wonder if it is so. Who knows the extent of what a soul may carry from one existence to another? Some say a soul's total experiences are retained even if the act of remembering is another function altogether. Still, we are all here now. Whether animals can reincarnate as humans are not, I still believe that it is a good thing to give them good memories.

Along those lines, when they are comfortable, I take them to the family pictures in the hallway. When the cat takes a particular interest in looking at a certain picture I say the person's name and add a few words about them.

"Yes, that is "mommy's" Grandma. That is a picture of her when she was younger. She is on the beach and it looks like she is eating a sandwich. She would have liked you very much."

Y'know, that kind of thing.

Maybe none of this sinks in and it is silly. But if I were a cat (and maybe I was), I would like someone to treat my this way. But at the very least I like to think that the cat knows that it is being treating as something more supreme than the biology that defines it. Kindness. Respect. Who knows what a soul remembers. The universe is a big place.