RE: Rattlesnake

[Ab Diver]

 Rocky Mountain Sue

Why would you poke a stick at a venomous snake??

 So I don t have to poke it with my finger? []
 
 Wow, great stories everybody. I once saw a Rattler and a King snake fighting on a riverbank (King snakes *eat* Rattlesnakes). Wow, was that ever like watching a " Clash of the Titans"  writ small. The King snake K-O ed the Rattler in the third round.[]
 
 I gotta admit, I wish it was legal to carry a 410 gauge pistol loaded with birdshot, just for snakes. It would be the perfect tool for disposing of poisonous snakes, and much easier to reach out and touch the snake than with a stick. Politically correct? Maybe not, but  I ve never been politically correct when it came to animals that can harm my children.

[RamblingWreck]

 MommaMia
For those of you who thought Cindy was jesting, I pasted a link to the Connecticut DEP that explains the decline of the timber rattle snake in our fair state http://www.dep.state.ct.us/burnatr/wildlife/factshts/rattle.htm
 
 DEP actually catches them, forces them to swallow radio transmitters then releases them (unharmed no less) so they can track their movements, etc.  They get all upset [] when somone runs over one of their tagged snakes when they slither onto the black top at night to shed their skin.

[redfish]

 Ab Diver
The closest I ever came to a snake was when I was 9 years old.  Some friends and I were shooting water mocassins in ditches in Katy, Texas(back when Katy was just rice fields).  While standing on the bank of a ditch, I felt something on my feet.  When I looked down, I saw a water mocassin crawling across my feet.