First, let me state that I live in the country and have no close neighbors who had to witness this event. Here goes. Thursday afternoon I spent several hours on my bush-hog. It is already August hot here in LA (Lower Alabama) so I decided to use our outside shower to clean up and cool off. The shower was great. My wife was now home from work and decided she wanted to shower so she entered the shower as I left. I took one step outside, glanced to the right and saw a LARGE diamondback rattler 4 steps ( I measured later) away on the grass of our back yard.
I calmly (yea, right) told my wife not to come out of the shower, that there was a big rattlesnake in the yard. We have two new little kittens that were running around my feet, so I grabbed the first one I could catch and put it in the kennel on our porch. My wife had assesed the situation and decided the snake was far enough away for her to come out and grab the other cat. She rescued him and joined me on the porch.
My next action was to run in the house and grab a weapon. My 22 rifle was closest, so I picked it up and went back out on the porch. By this time I had lost my towel, (sorry for this mental image) and was standing there on the porch aiming my rifle at the snake while in the nude. Of course, since the rifle had been in the cool house, the scope fogged up. Back in I go and grab our old police trade in 38 special. It is loaded with alternating rounds of snake shot and cowboy lead ammo.
The snake has now crawled just outside the fenced in area and is close to our fire pit. I make my way to the fence, still in a state of un-clothedness and manage to dispatch the creature with one shot to the head. After regaining my senses a little I realize I am running around in an embarassing condition and someone might drive by. I go inside, clothe myself and take care of getting rid of the snake. I later told my wife that I sure was glad she did not have a camera. Think about it, I had just taken a cold shower and then nearly stepped on a BIG snake. I am sure shrinkage was at it's worst. Hope you all have a great weekend.
Mike