Snake in the compound July 7, 2013

On July 7th this year, in between the hail storms we had another serpentine visitor.  Over by the wood piles a timber rattler had come to visit.  Now, a dog is smart enough to stay back when a rattler is rattling away.  Not so a cat.  One of the young outside cats was curious about the snake and the snake was not happy. He was all coiled up with his rattles making noise and he was ready to strike.  My friend threw something at the cat to scare it off, and I shot the snake.  11 rattles means it was around 5.5 years old.

Haven't seen rattlers around here for the past 4 years.  But this year this area of the mountains is in a real drought and the wildlife comes off the mountain to see what we have.