'Tis The Season

When the rattle snakes start making their appearances.  While heading to the bedroom, I saw Truffalo staring down something outside the sliding glass door in the living room.  I thought, "Now what?"  He's always going crazy over everything - rabbits, crickets, birds, lizards, javelinas, bobcats.  Then I noticed he was acting differently.  He wasn't barking and prancing around like his usual loony self; he was growling with trepidation.

Dog meets rattler for the first time, luckily with a door in between .

Sinister looking thing...

J was in the shower at the time, I'm out in the living room semi-freaking out, Truffalo's mesmerized, and Mocha couldn't care less.  As soon as J finished showering, he grabbed a shovel, and long story short, killed the rattlesnake.  As we were deciding where to dispose the snake, J briefly suggested that we put it on the grill. 

No snake here.  This was the chicken we had the day before.

Paired with BV 2006 Cab.  On the nose: 甜酒灢 (sweetened, fermented rice wine), I'll bet no other wine critic will ever come up with that one.

But I digress.  I later found out that we could have called 911, had the fire department come capture the snake, and release it into the wild.  Now I feel guilty that we killed a 'harmless' snake.  I'm starting to wonder if there's a den around our house because this is the second snake to die in our hands.  The first rattler perished in dad's hands a year and a half ago.