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User
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Topic: My cat and the rattler
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InnerLight
♀ 19946
Member # 19946 |  Posted: 10:19 PM, August 15th (Thursday), 2013 |     |
I stepped outside this eve with a glass of wine to relax. I saw my cat and she was in such a strong hunting posture I almost didn't recognize her. I couldn't see what she was so intent on. I saw her move in, and looked over and saw a large rattlesnake staring her down, poised to strike and she was only 6 feet away.
I tried calling her and she refused to come and only inched closer to the snake. I didn't want to come to get her, she was too close. I've lived in rattlesnake country for 9 years but I have only seen one other and I don't know how they move. I wasn't sure I could grab her without it getting more agitated and biting me.
I called my neighbor and as I'm on the phone she moves within 3 feet of the snake.
I was calling her and calling her. The snake was raised high on its coiled hissing really loudly. My kitty was intent on pouncing, and i was thinking she is a goner. this is it for kitty!
Then she backed up, alarmed at the intensity of the snake. She came to me then and I picked her up from a safe distance. I was relieved to have her in my arms. My neighbor arrived with a flat shovel and came up behind the snake and got him. Chopped its head off.
It was a big fat snake and I counted the rattles. 7. It kept writhing without its head. Gruesome and fascinating.
Kitty is safe.
BS, now age 54, d-day 6-2-08, divorced after 17 years M and 20 together. In some ways I have not 'gotten over it'. But I am resilient and have created a good life where I am mostly happy.
Posts: 6028 | Registered: Jun 2008 | From: Rural California |
nowiknow23
♀ 33226
Member # 33226 | | Posted: 10:24 PM, August 15th (Thursday), 2013 | |
((((kitty and IL))))
You can call me NIK
"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you."
-Walt Whitman
Posts: 27289 | Registered: Aug 2011 |
jo2love
♀ 31528
Member # 31528 | | Posted: 10:26 PM, August 15th (Thursday), 2013 | |
Posts: 37615 | Registered: Mar 2011 |
ThoughtIKnewYa
♀ 18449
Member # 18449 | | Posted: 11:03 PM, August 15th (Thursday), 2013 | |
I'm so glad she's OK!!
The snake can 'bite' for 24 hours or so after you've cut the head off. It's a reflex thing, so be very careful if you handle that part of it.
Posts: 11808 | Registered: Mar 2008 |
caregiver9000
♀ 28622
Member # 28622 | | Posted: 11:50 PM, August 15th (Thursday), 2013 | |
So glad for the happy ending!
I had a cat that cornered a copperhead in our garage. My dad killed that snake with a shovel. He buried the head, and let the kitty stalk the headless body after.
Me: 44, independent, happy, despite co-parenting with a lower muppet
FT "Stretch" (and Skew!) ;)
DS 13 DS 10
S 5/2010
D 12/2012
Posts: 6024 | Registered: May 2010 | From: a better place |
heartbroken_kk
♀ 22722
Member # 22722 | | Posted: 2:09 AM, August 16th (Friday), 2013 | |
wow, so lucky your kitty finally came to her senses!
I had to decapitate a rattler outside the kitchen door a couple months ago. It was creepy having to do it. Gave me the heebie jeebies.
BW then 46, STBXWHNPDPAFTG the destroyer of my entire life.
D-Day 1 1999, D-Day 2,3,4,5,6... 2009 thru 2011.
Separated, divorcing, moving on.
I edit because I always make typos.
Posts: 1297 | Registered: Feb 2009 | From: California |
persevere
♀ 31468
Member # 31468 | | Posted: 7:23 AM, August 16th (Friday), 2013 | |
Wow! That gave me chills! So glad you are both okay! :-)
Me: BW-44
Him: XWH-44
Together 9 yrs
DDays: 1/10/2011
Status: Divorced 4/27/11
Above all, be the heroine, not the victim. - Nora Ephron
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
- J. K. Rowling
Posts: 4786 | Registered: Mar 2011 | From: Texas |
k94ever
♀ 11176
Member # 11176 | | Posted: 8:01 AM, August 16th (Friday), 2013 | |
And this is why I live so far North.
k9
BS: 57
WS: 53
Betrayed: 23 years
Affairs: 14 (2 lasted 3 months. Rest were ONS)
WS died: 16 May 2011
Do not stay in your hurt forever. Choose to move out of it.
Posts: 6671 | Registered: Jul 2006 | From: Wisconsin |
amitheow
♀ 4691
Member # 4691 | | Posted: 8:03 AM, August 16th (Friday), 2013 | |
OMG
That is a crazy story. I got the shivers. YUK YUK YUK!
Glad Kitty is safe.
Old Timer, Just here to help
My screen name is: Am I The Ow? - Not Ami the OW.
Because in my situation I didn't know if I was the OW at first or if I was being cheated on. Found I was being cheated on.
Posts: 5085 | Registered: Jun 2004 | From: Texas |
Take2
♀ 23890
Member # 23890 | | Posted: 8:17 AM, August 16th (Friday), 2013 | |
Okay, Creepy!! Creepier still picturing a cat with a headless rattler! Yuck!
Glad Kitty is safe! And yay for good neighbors!!
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." Joseph Campbell...So, If fear was not a factor - what would you do?
Posts: 4195 | Registered: May 2009 | From: New England |
tushnurse
♀ 21101
Member # 21101 | | Posted: 9:37 AM, August 16th (Friday), 2013 | |
Whew! Scary stuff.
We killed a copperhead in our Garage this week, it was quite possibly the largest one I have ever seen. YIKES!!
Me: FBS
Him: FWS
Kids: 15 & 17
Married for 22 years now, was 16 at the time. .
D-Day Sept 26 2008
Fully R'd, and Happy Happy Happy
Posts: 9060 | Registered: Oct 2008 | From: St. Louis |
nowiknow23
♀ 33226
Member # 33226 | | Posted: 9:47 AM, August 16th (Friday), 2013 | |
And this is why I live so far North. Amen, k9. Bring on the snow.
You can call me NIK
"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you."
-Walt Whitman
Posts: 27289 | Registered: Aug 2011 |
sad12008
♀ 18179
Member # 18179 | | Posted: 1:38 PM, August 16th (Friday), 2013 | |
Holy cr*p! 
As if I needed another reason to be leery of going into our dark-along-the-walls garage at night, you all have convinced me to steer clear!
You can't fill a cup with no bottom.
Posts: 3928 | Registered: Feb 2008 | From: a new start together |
InnerLight
♀ 19946
Member # 19946 | | Posted: 9:53 AM, August 17th (Saturday), 2013 | |
Rattlers are scary, but it was very restrained, and didn't strike even tho my cat was stalking it for an hour. I heard the hissing from inside my house but assumed it was my irrigation system. 
I am grateful that snakes eat mice and gophers.
The squirrel in my yard was acting crazy agitated the past few days and I couldn't understand why. I thought maybe it had rabies, but now I think it could see the rattlesnake and I couldn't.
I will pay more attention to squirrel language from now on.
I regret not trying to skin and cook the snake. It seems like a waste of good meat to have thrown it out. Next time....
BS, now age 54, d-day 6-2-08, divorced after 17 years M and 20 together. In some ways I have not 'gotten over it'. But I am resilient and have created a good life where I am mostly happy.
Posts: 6028 | Registered: Jun 2008 | From: Rural California |
| Topic Posts: 14 | |
