Fun with Wildlife
Happened a couple of months ago when we were in Oregon, and my stomach still does flips when I think about it. We went to John Day Fossil Beds and there is a ranch you can tour across the street. Taki...
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Not while camping - yet, but one night when we came home after dark, DH went to the kennel to let our German Shepherd and our Australian Shepherd out. On his way to the kennel the thought he stepped on the hose, then when the GSD came running to me, he stopped, looked at the ground and jumped. Well, the DH hadn't left the hose out, it was the biggest copperhead we'd ever seen. I ran and got the little shotgun and DH shot it. Within a very short length of time, Kota was moaning and a big pus balloon was rising on his hind leg - exactly the same spot he'd been bitten by a black snake almost one year to the day the year before. After a young vet in a local clinic told me we have no poisonous snakes in Indiana (bull roar!) and another quite experience said to give him a couple of aspirins (worst thing you could do for even a two legged with snake bite) we rushed 'Kota to an emergency vet clinic in Indianapolis. When we told the vet the size of the copperhead, I don't think he really believed us and asked us to bring it in the next morning. This was at midnight. We got the last vial of anti-venom he had and had to leave our pet there. When we got home, DH raised the copperhead with a pitchfork to put into a trash bag to take to the vet. It's head was moving and the mouth opened. He didn't believe me, but went ahead and blew its head off. When we took it back in to the vet, he was amazed at how big it was. Everyone is used to a two footer with appropriate width, but this one was much longer and wider around. We let him have it. Two days later and over $700+ dollars, we got our pet back to recover at home. We were fortunate that there were no lasting effects.
The other incident was at our shop just outside Nashville, In. There had been a small copperhead right in front of the shop a couple of days prior, but we hadn't seen anymore of them. DH was talking to a friend in the work area of the shop and I was in my office when I happened to look up and right in the doorway of the furnace room was another copperhead. I called the men and the friend started teasing it with something, then decided to pick it up because it wasn't moving anywhere and he thought it was dead. I gave my husband a small piece of lumber and told him to kill it, which I think he did just to satisfy me. A good thing he did. The copperhead was alive, but the poor thing was stuck in some excess carpet glue left on the floor after carpeting my office a day or two before. It made for a good laugh later.
The other incident was at our shop just outside Nashville, In. There had been a small copperhead right in front of the shop a couple of days prior, but we hadn't seen anymore of them. DH was talking to a friend in the work area of the shop and I was in my office when I happened to look up and right in the doorway of the furnace room was another copperhead. I called the men and the friend started teasing it with something, then decided to pick it up because it wasn't moving anywhere and he thought it was dead. I gave my husband a small piece of lumber and told him to kill it, which I think he did just to satisfy me. A good thing he did. The copperhead was alive, but the poor thing was stuck in some excess carpet glue left on the floor after carpeting my office a day or two before. It made for a good laugh later.
