One night, several months ago, I was busy doing housework and initially ignored Rex, our GSD, who was barking non-stop outside in the side yard. He NEVER barks non-stop like that so I eventually stopped what I was doing and went to check. As soon as I stepped out the back door I could hear what sounded like a Mexican cucaracha band playing and I knew he had cornered a rattle snake. I walked to the side yard where, sure enough, he was standing directly over a coiled and rattling snake. His nose was nose-to-nose to the snake who was rattling his tail for all it was worth. I immediately called off the dog and got him into the house. Then ran to find DH. I told him "get your gun there's a rattlesnake in the backyard". Well, seemed like 20 minutes later......first he couldn't find his shoes, then couldn't find his gun cabinet key, then couldn't find the bullets, oh yeah the bullets are in his truck, couldn't find his truck keys. By the time he got his gun loaded and walked outside with me, I was sure the snake wouldn't still be there but he was. He was slithering away, across the yard. DH took aim and hit him from the back steps. He was sure he had "blown his head off" but the next morning when I checked on the snake it was still alive and had to be dispatched.
Ever since then, I'm always cautious as I walk around at night locking up coops and checking on animals or going back and forth to the barn or stables. Prior to that, I too thought rattle snakes were daytime creatures. Today, for the life of me, I can't imagine why it did not bite Rex. But, I thank God, who has protected that dog many times over - he had done the same thing with a water mocassin the size of a tree log down at our pond - and cornered a bobcat when we first moved here. After the rattlesnake incident I told my husband "This is the country, keep your gun loaded and keep it by the door." He laughed and thought it was so different from the me he married ten years ago that told him to unload all the guns and lock them in the gun cabinet. But....we just moved to this old plantation home in the country surrounded by nothing, no neighbors, no town, no hospital for many miles, and this home had not been lived in in 10 years. The fields and barns all just abandoned. You can only imagine the wildlife that took over this place. I do, however, let the huge barn snakes/rat snakes live in the barn. They have a job to do in keeping down the mice population and they get fed with an occasional egg a freeranging chicken lays in there every so often. And, of course, the king snakes get to live since they have a job to do in keeping down the venomous snake population.
