On The Rocks! or I'm On my way!

Today has been great, but yesterday after I wrote and posted it on my blog—things went south really fast! And not in a good way.

I was still sitting at my desk when suddenly Little Debbie, Henry Standing Bear and Big Al(ice) all started barking non-stop. So, I looked out the  front window to see if someone had pulled up to our gate.

No one was parked outside our gate. Then I followed the dog's stares and about 3-4 feet away from them there was this big snake, that had come through the front yard fence and it was having a stare down with the dogs.

I wanted to holler for Tony, but he was at the Old Timer, in Medina. I also wanted to faint, but  I knew I couldn't, because I needed to get our dogs inside The Cabin—fast!

So I skipped outside to the front porch and grabbed The Girls and then I yelled at Henry and told him to get inside.

With the dogs safely inside The Cabin, still barking, I grabbed my camera so I could take a picture of the snake intruder, so I could show it to Tony, because I was pretty sure that it was a rattle snake. Here's that picture. The snake is on the rocks, between and the terra-cotta pot the small two-toned pot. (It is not a very good picture.)

When I checked the picture I knew that I needed to get closer to it, so I went back outside and zoomed-in and got this picture of that big, fat, terrifying snake.

Then I skipped back inside and knew that I needed to call Tony, at the Old Timer. After I Googled the phone number I punched in the numbers.

Sweet Debbie, the owner of the famous Old Timer answered, and said, "Hello Nancy"

"Is Tony there?"

"Yes he is. Let me get him for you. Hold on."

Seconds later, Tony said, "Hello."

"Tony, there is a gigantic rattle snake in our front yard!"

"I'm on my way." Click.

As soon as I heard the click, I went back to the front window and saw the snake exiting the front yard through the fence. But because of all of the rain we've been having—the grass was tall and I could not see where it went.

It seemed like hours passed before Tony finally got home, but actually it was only about twelve minutes. When he got out of Trigger, he asked, "Where is it? Did you hear the rattler?" 

After I explained to him about it disappearing in the grass and that I wasn't sure about hearing the rattles, because a neighbor was mowing nearby. "I heard something, but because I was so scared I am not sure what I heard. But I took pictures."

We went to my computer and I showed him the pictures. Tony thought it was a hognose snake, but he wasn't 100% sure what it was, because of my camera skills. So, I called Ronnie and sent him the pictures.

"Nance, I think that is a hognose snake," Ronnie said. "They are good snakes. They kill rattlers. Hey, Nita just told me that hognose snakes are real fat, too. How fat was it?"

"Probably about 5-6 inches round," I guessed. "Doesn't Joel know a lot about snakes?"

"Yes, Joel is a snake expert. I'll send him the picture and get back to you..."

Then to pass the time I sent Carol, Mari and Fourth the pictures asking them to help us identify the snake.

Then Ronnie called me back. "Joel just texted me. It is definitely a hognose snake. And I just sent you a screen shot of his reply...."

As soon as we adios-ed each other I checked my e-mail. This is what Ronnie sent me.

I was so relieved after reading Joel's reply, I immediately went back to the picture of the snake and enlarged it big time and if you look closely at the snake you can actually see his tail and it had no rattlers.

So, I quickly sent Carol, Mari and Fourth another e-mail to let them know it was a hognose snake and not a rattler.

Later in the evening I checked my e-mail, again. Here is Mari's reply:

"VERY jealous of your hognose because of the light, pretty coloring! The ones around here are dark and bland in color. Of course I've only seen one and it was years and years ago. I pressured it until it played dead so I could lift it up on a pitchfork and relocate it from where it was inside a dog run!

Mari"

And here is Fourth's reply:

"Yep, hognose……"

Then Carol called me and she told me that she has just seen two hognose snakes in the past couple of days, on her ranch, and then we quickly changed the subject and talked about happier things to get our minds off of snakes.

Like I said earlier, today has been great, because this morning before going to work next door I was thinking about the hognose snake being a good snake or at least trying to talk myself into believing it. 

So after I made a little prayer request to the snake gods asking them to please stay out of our yard and to please stay away from our dogs—I now believe that seeing that harmless, scary-looking hognose snake was actually a good omen for me. To let me know that he will keep our dogs safe. And that is how I am ending this story on a good note. Also because it is thundering outside and I need to unplug.

An after thought: Wouldn't you just hate for someone to call you a hognose? It is a horrible name. So, now I have some sympathy for hognose snakes.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

P.S. When Tony and I got back home from working—we mowed down the tall grass!