Rattlesnake Killer

There are few things that Joe is really afraid of- with the exception of snakes. He totally despises them. They, on the other hand, seem to sense his fear and gravitate towards him. There are whole areas of the world that Joe refuses to live simply because of the presence of deadly snakes. Apparently we can add Colorado to that list.

I have friends that have lived in Colorado for many, many years and have never once seen a rattlesnake in the wild. And these are people who love the outdoors and are frequently outside and in the mountains. And yet, my husband managed to have 3 rattlesnake encounters in the short 6 weeks we were in Colorado!

Twice there was a rattlesnake present when he was rock climbing with our friend John. Joe actually only knew about the first one. The second time John, knowing Joe's fear, didn't mention the snake near them until days later. His third encounter, however, was a little more up close and personal.

One night not too long before we left Colorado Joe just needed to get out so he went for a mountain bike ride on his own. As he was riding back on the trail he suddenly came across a man who was frantically waving him down. Apparently there was a rattlesnake lying across the trail just a little bit ahead. Joe says that if it hadn't been for the guy he never would have seen the snake and would have biked right over it. Joe's mom, by the way, thinks that maybe this man was an angel. But anyway, Joe and the man took quite a while tring to figure out what to do. The only way to get around the snake was to walk through the tall grass surrounding the trail. For fear of more snakes lurking there was no way Joe was going to do this. So, what did Joe do? Well, he killed the rattlesnake of course. He found the biggest rock around (more like a boulder I'm guessing), got as close as he dared, and threw the rock on the snake's head. Then threw about 10 more rocks on the snake just to make sure it was good and dead. It was.

My husband the rattlesnake killer.