Thanks Gary. Hey Wayne can you post my Gila Monster pic when you get a chance? It isn't a great picture, because it got blurred a little with motion and its head isn't very visible but it is still a great "see how close I am and see that distinctive gila monster pattern and coloration" shot.

coonx, You know, I saw a fresh skin on the ground last week, not in the same area where Casper saw the snake, but maybe 100' away. It spooked me a little, but we had days in December, January and in February that were in the 70s and 80s so I knew it was possible snakes were coming out looking for a meal on a warm winter day----I just didn't want to believe they actually were. I hope your skin was from your resident rat snake. In the past, the earliest I have encountered a snake outdoors was either on March 1st or 2nd, likely in 2007 or 2008, and it was a pygmy rattler about 2" from my hand. I instinctively did a backwards somersault to get away from it since I already was crouched down low to the ground. I'm glad there were no eyewitnesses to that event. Bon, That's one of those things I try not to think about too long and too hard. Because I have so much trouble with timber rattlers coming out of the adjacent woodland, I am very cautious when handling mulch and compost year-round, always wearing heavy leather work gloves and using a rake to move mulch and compost around before I put my hands near it. Sometimes I'll stir up a skink or a glass lizard (which looks very much like a snake) which will startle me, but I rarely find a snake in the mulch. They more often are slithering through a raised bed looking for a meal, often preferring the dense shade beneath potato plants once the plants are a foot or two tall. Some years I mostly have trouble with copperheads, and with an occasional diamondback rattler. The last two or three or maybe four years, the persistent problem has been with timber rattlers. I keep reading they are rare. Ha, they may be rare in some places, but I encounter them almost weekly and sometimes several days a week in summer. The place I most often encounter them is right at my garden gate. They come out of our neighbors' woodland to our south, slither across maybe 20 yards of pasture, slide under the barbed wire fence, cross our driveway and meet up with me at the gate. It happens over and over and over again to the point that I start dreading that walk to the garden gate as I'm likely to encounter a venomous snake there. And, it isn't the same snake over and over because we shoot every venomous snake that we see around our house. They can room our 10 or 11 acres of woodland all they want and we leave them alone, but when they come to the yard or garden, it is too risky to ignore them. I feel really bad for this soldier that lost his leg. I cannot even imagine what he must be going through, but he is lucky to be alive. And, of course, it wasn't just luck---his hiking companions acted quickly to give him the best chance to survive. There are times I've been so close to snakes, including timber rattlers, that I don't know why I haven't been bitten, but I'm grateful I've been so fortunate to avoid that fate. I want to remember what happened to this gentleman so that I am more careful than ever, particularly in the garden. We always joke that it is a jungle out there in summer (and it is) but I am aware that snakes can be hard to spot in a jungle of vegetation. We also talk about how odd it is that I always see the timber rattlers just outside the garden gate or trying to slither through the fence, but rarely actually see them inside the garden. (One did climb up into one of my Luna hardy hibiscus plants last spring just a few feet inside the garden gate.) Do I think that we see and shoot them all before they get into the garden. No, I do not. What I think is likely is just they are easier to spot in the gravel driveway but once they are in the garden, I just don't see them, which is scary in and of itself.

Thank you all for your kind comments and good wishes. I know I'm far from the only one who has had "interesting" encounters. I've actually had quite a few, but there again I'm not alone in that. Sylvia, I had read about vaccines for dogs and cats but the comments were not exactly favorable. Years ago I had a dog who was bitten in the face by a rattler. His face was very swollen on one side and he lay in the back yard for a week, with a hole forming where he had been bitten, and then he recovered and the hole closed over. yuccarose, I'm sorry that your neighbor's dog was not as fortunate. mcnastarana, snake repellent might not be a bad idea in places where we walk most often and in the garden around the house, and I'll look into that. The rest of the property is too large and too hilly for that to be feasible. Sylvia, please do be careful where you have the Mohave rattlers. Fortunately rattlers want to be left alone. I don't think I could ever live in Africa where black mambas are so aggressive that they will chase you, and their venom can be deadly within 15 minutes. Lisa, thank you for your kind thoughts. I had to chuckle when I read your post, which sounded so much like mine. A baby rattler in the house is no joke since their venom is just as potent as that of adults. stillann, I saw the original Parent Trap movie and do recall the scene about the fiance trying to scare away bears. It's hilarious.

I think you did the right thing, albeit taking some risk... I'm amazed that you're able to tackle them if need be.. I know Native American Indian women used to use a stick and a knife to finish the job, and of course they ate them... My view is that everything has a right to live, besides myself, and I would struggle to kill anything, even aphids have a free hand - house flies? I try hard to get them out... [whilst liberally conservative, I struggle with abortion except in extreme cases].... and fortunately for us here we don't have to garden with anything that might be dangerously threatening like that.. Being somewhat ophidophobic,, with your scenario, I'd have dropped dead on the spot... Murderers, terrorists and other low life... I might take a different view... It goes without saying that I hope you keep safe in your garden Ingrid....