Last night I heard my dogs barking at the back door, like they do every evening at around 2 o'clock to come sleep. I get up during a commercial and open the door when at the same moment three things happen, something launches itself at my dog and then coils back, my dog freaks out and starts barking/running, and my buddy (who is lightly intoxicated) screams "holy shit!" I look down and there is a 5 foot snake coiled up at the foot of the door hissing incredibly loudly and striking at anything that moves. I slam the door shut and run around the back side of the house, bring the dogs through the gate and by the time I get back to where the snake was it was gone.
I proceeded to do some research all day and had discovered it was one of three snakes, a bull snake (acts like a diamondback rattler when threatened), a rat snake, or (OH SNAP) a diamond back rattler. I had more or less ruled out the rat snake because even backed into a corner they are not hyper aggressive like this one was acting and don't shake the rear of there bodies. This concerned my entire family because I have 3 dogs and a brother and sister both under 10.
Fast forward to this evening.
Another friend of mine and I are walking through the garage after throwing fireworks at my neighbors (don't ask) when he screams WTF and jumps up on to the table (pansy). Here's that same snake again. I catch it with a shovel and put a bucket on it. I then proceed to put weight on the bucket while my parents come out and I have someone not jumping on tables with me. Me and father attempt to figure out a way to cover this box and take it to the river bottoms about 3 miles from my house when my mom starts yelling and screaming that we better kill it. This is my mom's "I will hate you forever if you don't do what I say tone." Me and my dad unfortunately bow into this and take the top off the bucket and remove it's head with a shovel.
Before we killed it I spent a good 45 seconds looking it over and repeatedly told them it was a non venomous bull snake, but we killed it anyways.
I kind of feel bad that I killed it, would you?
cliffs:
scary ass snake in backyard last night
could be either poisonous diamondback rattler or harmless bull snake
found again tonight
discovered it was harmless
mom wanted it dead anyways
feel bad
I proceeded to do some research all day and had discovered it was one of three snakes, a bull snake (acts like a diamondback rattler when threatened), a rat snake, or (OH SNAP) a diamond back rattler. I had more or less ruled out the rat snake because even backed into a corner they are not hyper aggressive like this one was acting and don't shake the rear of there bodies. This concerned my entire family because I have 3 dogs and a brother and sister both under 10.
Fast forward to this evening.
Another friend of mine and I are walking through the garage after throwing fireworks at my neighbors (don't ask) when he screams WTF and jumps up on to the table (pansy). Here's that same snake again. I catch it with a shovel and put a bucket on it. I then proceed to put weight on the bucket while my parents come out and I have someone not jumping on tables with me. Me and father attempt to figure out a way to cover this box and take it to the river bottoms about 3 miles from my house when my mom starts yelling and screaming that we better kill it. This is my mom's "I will hate you forever if you don't do what I say tone." Me and my dad unfortunately bow into this and take the top off the bucket and remove it's head with a shovel.
Before we killed it I spent a good 45 seconds looking it over and repeatedly told them it was a non venomous bull snake, but we killed it anyways.
I kind of feel bad that I killed it, would you?
cliffs:
scary ass snake in backyard last night
could be either poisonous diamondback rattler or harmless bull snake
found again tonight
discovered it was harmless
mom wanted it dead anyways
feel bad