So, there I was, in my home office, working away. It was a pleasant summer morning, so I had the windows open. The normal sounds of the farm trickled in through the window: the dogs barking, the horses horsing, the wind blowing, the birds chirping, the sprinkler sprinkling. And, man, I was in the zone. I had my coding on and I was focused. While I was mildly aware of the afore mentioned buccolic auditory inputs, but only partially. As such, it took me a moment to realize that the itensity of dog barking exceeded the threshold above which I must pay attention and, more significantly, I hadn't turned any sprinklers on in the first place.

With a feeling that I was already late to the party, I jumped up and ran outside. Kenya was on the front porch barking her sweet brown head off. The offender, pictured here, was representing to the best of his ability. Which was pretty good, actually. Kenya was doing her guardian of the universe bit. I grabbed her and the two emergency backup dogs who soon arrived on the scene, making it a three alarm situation. Inside they went, thus avoiding a $150 vet bill for snakebite.

Back outside I go with my patented snake-catching device and, wait for it, yes, my video camera. Here's our star in action (sorry, it's big, about 1.2M). Anyway, the trap is sprung. This is as close as I can imagine getting to a rattlesnake and surviving. Very cool, though.

Free at last...
- posted by Colin @ 7:28 PM