Last night was not a very restful night. My little red dog, Penny, barked to go outside about an hour after I went to bed. I got up and waited for her to do her thing, trying not to nod off, cuz I didn't want her to bark again and wake up the baby or mi esposo. We stumbled back to bed about 10 minutes later. An hour or so after that, my Livestock Guardian Dog, Buddy, started a racket just under our bedroom window. I got up again and yelled at him out the window. He just looked at me then proceeded to bark even more and more hysterically. That's when I noticed the big rattlesnake between Buddy and his water bucket. "Oh! Sh-t", I said, "It's a damn snake!" Steve says, "A snake?" and rolls right over to go back to sleep.

So I stuffed my feet in my sandals and headed out the back door. I wanted to get the big flat shovel but the snake was between me and the garage. Just as I stepped out the door, Buddy startled the snake and it slithered very quickly into the corner by his water bucket. Nice! NOT! "LEAVE IT, BUD!" I ordered the dog. He went off to the front yard but not very far. He kept his eye on that snake , his head low, but at a distance. Good dog!

So I managed to get the shovel out of the garage. What to do next? I tried to chop the head off a couple of times but the snake was quick and in striking mode now. There is a big flat tile by the water bucket so I just pinned the snake down with the shovel so that it couldn't go anywhere or bite me or Buddy. "Steve!!!" I yelled. I heard a muffled,"Yeah?" "I need your help, NOW!" "Just a minute ," he says. A minute or so later, the front porch light comes on and mi esposo comes out in his robe and sandals. He got in the garage and got the hoe. While I held the snake with the shovel, he managed to sever it's dangerous head from it's body with two swift blows. What a relief! So I put the dead snake in a bucket by the trash cans. Steve wants the rattle as a souvenir but we didn't want to worry about that in the middle of the night. It will stink to high heaven by the time he gets home from work and cuts it off today. But, hey, I'm sure not going to do it!

Buddy wouldn't go near his water bucket the rest of the night. I had to put another bucket out front for him. He was pretty nervous and jumpy for awhile. Thank the Lord, he did not get bit! That is a really good command to teach a dog, "Leave It!"

It was the first snake we've had this year and I hope it is the last. We usually can expect two or more snakes to show up in the spring and then another 2 in the fall. Yet another sign to me that things are not normal this year. It is not fall yet. It is a weird time to have a snake looking for cover. Or maybe it was looking for a meal. I found one of those big Sonoran Desert Taods trying to bury itself in one of my flower pots this morning. Penny alerted me to that. Dogs are great!