Knocking At My Front Door

I went out my front door yesterday morning to leave a package to be picked up and was checking the water status of my cactus plants on the plant table right next to my front door. What I thought was a stick in the dirt turned out to be the head of a RATTLESNAKE!

This is a Timber Rattlesnake (aka Canebrake Rattlesnake), native to Central and East Texas.
photo credit: Adam Dawson

I didn’t realize it was a rattlesnake at first — at first I thought it was dead and then I moved in closer to get a better look and it moved back. I jumped back. Then I noticed its body coiled around the back of the planter.

I went in and told my mom and she asked, “Does it have a triangle head?” I said “I don’t know but I think so.” She jumped out of bed and went to have a look-see and she said, “Oh boy, I think that’s a rattlesnake.”

So what do you do with a rattlesnake at your front door: a door that gets a lot of activity with people and dogs coming and going??

photo credit: Adam Dawson

I called 9-11 and they dispatched Animal Control. They took about 45 minutes to get here but thankfully the snake was still there. The Animal Control officer confirmed that it was indeed a rattlesnake, grabbed it with her tongs and put it in her bag. He was about 2 feet long and I asked if he was a baby. She said he wasn’t a baby but was a juvenile rattlesnake. With very potent venom.

As she was tying the top of the bag, I saw the snake coming out the bottom of the bag and yelled, “He’s getting out of your bag!” She acted quickly, shocked that she had a hole in the bottom of her bag and managed to get ahold of the snake and put him in a bucket and then whisked him off to release him somewhere far far from here.

I came back in the house and said “Shit, this is the most excitement I’ve had in a long time!”

I need to get out more often… 🙂