re: Early Spring Rattlesnake

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What part of ONF?

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Greene County. Timber rattlers are abundant in the Greene, Oglethorpe, Morgan, and Putnam parts of ONF. I’d be shocked if there was a single parcel of ONF that doesn’t have them.

The whole story with this one is the dog stepped on it right after I saw it. Stepped on it like 3 or 4 times before I grabbed the collar. Snake only flicked its tongue once lol. Kids were already back in the truck and I just had to check a few last stump holes. I didn’t realize the 60lb dog had followed me.

My kids are 3 and 7 and they stay behind dad and walk my path. Honestly the 3 year old was on my shoulders or in her moms arms most of the walk.

As some have said, the risk of snakebite is minuscule. I’ve been massively into the (NIOSH) data for school and of the 5-7k reported snakebites a year only around 2k actually involve venomous snakes. Lots of bites from nonvenomous snakes end up in the statistics just because the people sought treatment. Of the 0-10 Americans that die of a snakebite in a given year, many don’t seek treatment or have pissed the snake off so much they get a heavy dose.

My son got his first rattler at 7 months. My daughter had to wait 3 years. I’m slipping.

rattlesnake killed my SoJourn, who was just chasing rabbits and wouldn't have given a damn about a snake; so, i kill every one of the bastards i come across; don't give a frick if they eat mice or ticks or what the hell ever; might be related to the one i'm looking for

What part of Redlands were you on?

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so, i kill every one of the bastards i come across; don't give a frick if they eat mice or ticks or what the hell ever; might be related to the one i'm looking for

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That first pic of the rattlesnake terrifies me about walking in the woods with my 4 and 6 year old boys

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This.

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You don't go to yellowstone and kill every bear you see. Same thing.

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I don’t go to Yellowstone and poke bears with a frickin stick either

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I don’t go to Yellowstone and poke bears with a frickin stick either

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I don’t ever harass these snakes in anyway (accidental trampling by my dog aside). I just take pictures. I’ve found that bugging them makes them less likely to be observed again in the same spot. Plus I like the idea of keeping my fingers out of their mouths, and don’t want to injure them in any way. All these photos were/are in situ.

For example, take these Timbers (not from National forest) from 19 Feb. I’ve seen both of them year after year for 7 years plus.

I’ve seen this female with babies before:


I’ve seen this honest 5’ male every spring and fall for 7 years:

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What part of Redlands

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Way north, near Oglethorpe county line.

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Took the family to look for rattlesnakes? Weirdo

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Way cooler than taking your kids to Disney World, that's for sure.

Skull Shoals Injun Mound area?

This is as much for me as it is anyone else.

I "rescued" SoJourn from her life. A couple in an apartment had her, and she was in a kennel 23 hours a day. I think a divorce happened or something, but buddy of mine asked me to take her, because he knew I had a fenced yard and 600 acres in South Arkansas for her.

If anyone or anything on this planet was put here for one reason, SoJourn was put here to chase rabbits. She was masterful. She would run those big swampers for hours and hours and hours, coming back to camp just to eat and rest. Then, she would be off again. Now and then, she would catch one. She'd come back to camp, plop the carcass down on the ground and eat that damned thing, daring any of the much bigger dogs around to get within biting distance.

I can still see her "grinning" as we traipsed through the woods, her running alongside my four-wheeler -- that is, until she caught a whiff, and then she was off!

First thing I did when I got her was have her fixed. Cost me a lot of money, but that's OK. One of the guys in our club was a world champion beagle breeder. First time he heard SoJourn chasing, he came up to me with a handful of hundred dollar bills. Hated to tell him she couldn't have pups.

But she loved every minute of chasing those rabbits, and it made my heart proud to listen to her off in the distance.

She would come home and curl up beside me. Slept right beside my leg every night, like she knew I would protect her. Loved that little dog.

And then that god damned snake bit her.

She came up in the yard about lunch one day and was just standing over to one side. I saw her but didn't think too much of it, until I saw the look on her face. She was scared.

I didn't know what was wrong. I went to her, but she was just sort of numb. I picked her up and carried her to my camper to look her over, then I saw blood on my hand. Took a minute, but I finally found a puncture wound. At that point, I thought she had just gotten hooked on a fence or something. So, I washed her up a little, gave her some tylenol and water and let her go.

The next thing I saw broke my heart. I went to look for her a while later but couldn't find her. Movement over in a fenceline caught my attention. She was burying herself.

Grabbed her up and screamed to a vet. He said most likely a rattlesnake because a cottonmouth or copperhead wouldn't have hurt her that bad. She died that night.

So, yeah, frick every god damned snake.