Monday, May 11, 2009

Hunting snakes and weekend pics....



Today in the yard, trying to stop Maggie and Thorne from pursuing a Garter snake was a failure.... Maggie is a hunter and wouldn't give up or listen to me for that matter. I should have put a collar on her and took her in but there wasn't time. Thorne was trying to grab Maggie in the meantime to keep her from danger. Too late, though, the poor baby snake, came out of his hiding spot and Maggie grabbed his tail then Thorne got very protective and barked in his deep threatening bark at the snake non-stop. He grabbed it as there was lots of commotion between them and I trying to stop them. Neighbors probably thought a masacre was going on in our yard from what it sounded like.

Thorne grabbed it and threw it quite a few feet and poor thing landed upside down , bleeding and no movement. This is something they were proud of, their kill, but I was very saddened for the poor snake who was an asset to the yard and garden.
I had to use a stick, quickly picked up the snake while it was hanging lifeless over the stick and toss it out of the yard. The dogs were not thrilled, they looked at me like hey, that was ours, lady!!
I didn't want them to eat or swallow it so they will just have to understand. Oh, boy, it's gonna be a fun summer...that was not the usual snake we have in our yard, either. We have a much bigger one, I see yearly and they shouldn't mess with that one if it comes around. Gotta watch 'em like hawks, now. I kept thinking, in the heat of the snake hunt, would Thorne or Maggie have listened and let the snake be if they were properly obedience trained? Hmmmmm?

Here are some photos of them in the yard during the weekend , prior to the snake event