A copperhead to be exact. Michael saw him strike, saw the two puncture wounds, saw the snake still coiled, ready to strike. Chip got wobbly and disoriented. Michael lifted him into the truck and rushed him to the vet. Hours later, he met me at the door with his tail wagging, desiring to beat Lily out of some leftover Domino's pizza. He seems to have made a complete recovery. He is on 3 different pills to ward off any infections. The vet said the venom isn't poisonous, but the bacteria is what is the danger to dogs. I have been seeing lots of harmless snakes on my walks lately and Chip has messed with them before. He has killed a couple of moccasins, the dope.
I have twice now posted comments to entries here only for them to be lost; first one was last week to Angela's pictures of Samuel. He is so adorable. And the second one was on your pictures of berled crabs. They looked yummy. I am sorry to have missed that - duty called. I am also sorry to have missed seeing Stephen and hearing about their jazz fest adventures. I want to know who they saw/heard, what they ate, what interesting tattoos were on display.
A friend of mine's Yorkshire Terrier was bitten three different times by copperheads. His head would swell to about three times its natural size but he recovered every time. That dog also had several run-ins with skunks. Not the sharpest canine you'd ever meet.
My friend who visited me yesterday told me her dog has been bitten 7 times. Michael asked the vet if he thought this would teach Chip a lesson. The vet said "no" he'd seen dogs with repeat injuries that had chased cars.
We went to the zoo today and checked out what a copperhead looks like in the Swamp Exhibit. Joey and my sister had a running argument from their house until the Swamp Exhibit about what a copperhead was. He thought a type of rattlesnake, she said "NO". She was right!
Very creepy. You could hardly see the thing, hiding under it's piece of wood. I'll never go walking in your woods. Remind me not to let my kids back there either!
How big was the snake? Did it freak Michael out? It would me!
One can usually see the snakes in plain view so I haven't been worried until now. I think Michael was scared for Chip. This is snake season. I don't know what I am going to do now. Michael took the day off from work today. We celebrated our anniversary today with lunch at DiCristina's. It was delicious and a fun experience to eat out. But first, we took a walk at the Boy Scout observation walk in Lacombe. We have never taken Chip out there before and brought a leash for it. He was doing fine without the leash until he jumped the pier into alligator and snake city. He is determined to be their governor. I freaked out, despite Michael's telling me to "calm down." He couldn't get back up; the jump was too high. He had to wade his way through tall, dense brush; swamp. I am wide-eyed just re-telling it. I put him on a leash when he got back up on the pier, but he strained it so - I thought he was going to asphyxiate himself. So, we continued our walk on the bigger trail, starting off with him on a leash, but he kept going off the trail into the marsh. He made me a nervous wreck and we short-changed our walk on the wild side. One of us lazy people ought to train him like I have seen other labs, so well heeled, obeying their master. He would be such a good dog if only we would train him. Sigh.
cool