Don't mess with Texas.

And here's why.

We were coming in from swimming this evening and my dad's dog Oliver was finding something particularly interesting in the corner of my yard by the kid's playscape. We have a bit of a gap in our fence at the ground in that area, but so far, we've had a family of wild rabbits, and then a litter of kittens. My mom kept warning me to put a rattle snake barrier up (basically just metal landscape edging at the bottom of the fence), but I figured with rabbits and kittens being the worst of it, it wasn't a huge deal. Needless to say, it will be going up this weekend! My kids are outside all the time and we have a bit of a rattle snake problem in our neighborhood. Our house backs up to a green belt of sorts but again, with kittens and rabbits as the usual visitors, not rattle snakes!

Here's what's left of the head once my dad got out the shovel! It literally opened and closed it mouth for minutes after his head was detached!! Oy! This is actually the second one my dad has killed since living here...there was a smaller one on his porch one morning, and unfortunately, that was no where near the kids or dogs.

This sucker was pretty darn big. About three feet. I'm so grateful it was not one of my kids that came upon it and I'm certainly glad that Oliver didn't get bit!

We actually live next to a high school that was built a few years back. Our city is developing and there is still alot of farm land. When the high school was being built, they brought in bull dozers and all kinds of machinery to push through the thick brush. Apparently, they came upon a huge den of rattle snakes. I'm talking hundreds. Hundreds. They had to shut down constuction for several weeks to clear the land of the snakes and make sure there were no more dens. Had I known this before we built this house, I might have reconsidered this neighborhood! Since we moved in, there have been a few dogs killed and one lady was bit by a baby rattle snake while gardening. She was okay after a two week stay in the ICU. Yah. This is my neighborhood.

This is the only way I like to see snakes. Rattle snakes at least. Dead. I'm gonna go take a valium.