Since I moved to western Kansas, I’ve always been told to watch out for rattlesnakes. I haven’t been too worried because I haven’t seen one.
That came to an end today.
My roommate, Travis Schafer, and I were driving home this afternoon to pick up his wallet from our house so he could buy gas when we saw one.
It was sitting near the end of our driveway. Travis said he had seen one in the same area before, but this was still my first encounter.
“That’s a big one,” Travis said. “See the rattler on it?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “We need to kill it.”
He nodded in agreement and we both bailed out of my truck to get a closer look.
It was stretched out and not rattling, so, going by what I’d been told, I knew we weren’t in real danger.
Using my cell phone, I snapped a picture, and Travis said he was going to go grab a shovel from the garage. I stopped him.
“I will just get the back tires of my truck on it and peel out,” I said. “It will tear it apart.”
“OK,” Travis said as I climbed back into the truck and, with his direction, got my rear wheel on it.
From inside my vehicle, I could hear the snake rattling in protest. I smiled and Travis told me to go for it.
I dropped the truck into drive and punched the accelerator.
My feels threw up a cloud of dust as I spun out on the snake.
When I came to a stop I looked over at Travis. He was pointing at the snake.
“Hit it again,” he said.
So I backed up and peeled out on it a couple more times.
“It’s dead,” Travis called from the side of the road.
I put the truck into park and jumped out. I quickly saw I had torn the snake’s head.
“That was awesome!” I said.
Travis agreed and we went on about our business.
I realize some of you out there may not approve of me killing this snake, or the possum I shot the other day, but rattlesnakes are dangerous. We couldn’t have one of those that close to our house. What if it would have gotten in and bit one of us? That wouldn’t have been good.
As for the possum . . . it’s a possum. They are disease-ridden varmints. Who cares if I blew the head off of one?
