Rattlesnakes

My sister, who lives in the mountains of Colorado, says that everyone there has bear stories. Here in the desert everyone has rattlesnake stories except us--yet--but I've been talking with folks and thinking about rattlesnakes.

Actually, I do have a rattlesnake story, but it is from California. While visiting a farm, I was looking up investigating something when I stepped on a rattlesnake. He was in dappled shade and completely blended into the environment. Thank goodness I stepped on his tail. We both went “Eeeek” and headed in opposite directions.

It was a good lesson about adapting to a new environment. In Seattle we can clomp around with our heads in the clouds (sometimes literally). In desert areas, you watch where you put your feet. I think it is called "being present in the moment."

There’s a marvelous snake bench just sitting along a road in our town of Oro Valley. Along that road there are a collection of wonderful sculptures of various animals, but that’s the topic for another time.

Our friends who just built a house in NW Tucson said that construction workers scared up three rattlesnakes. The neighbors in the adjoining lot found 19 rattlesnakes on their property during the construction period. The snakes probably didn’t like the construction noise and vibrations and moved next door.

We heard a story from an Oro Valley neighbor how they left a door open for a half an hour accidentally in December and a hibernating diamondback rattler “unhibernated” itself and wandered in to get warm. It probably spent the night under his bed and he only found it the next day when he almost stepped on it. The fire department came and removed and relocated the snake. Needless to say, we are now verrry careful about closing doors. I'm told that this is a very rare thing to happen.

I asked a native Tucsonite how they raise children in an environment that has so many things that want to bite, sting, or poke you. "It's not that big an issue with most critters because they are more frightened of you than you are of them. The real problem is termites." (I'm currently learning about desert termites and will write about that another day.)

I half-sighted a road runner down our road. We were told that road runners kill rattlesnakes by dancing just inside the snake's strike zone and jumping out of the way when the snake strikes. They do this over and over until the snake is exhausted. Then they grab the snake's head and bash it in. Whoa, some kinda bird.

People here take their dogs to rattlesnake avoidance classes where they teach the dog to run away from rattlesnakes rather than be curious and run up to them. We decided not to bring our enthusiastic, curious Golden Retriever to Arizona until we know more about this environment even though there is now an anti-rattlesnake vaccine for dogs. Vaccinated dogs experience less pain and have a reduced risk of permanent injury from rattlesnake bite.

I’m always interested how the natural environment influences human cities. Some of the sidewalks in our town of Oro Valley undulate like snakes. I’m not sure if that is an influence of being in snake country, but how often do you see snaking sidewalks like these? It’s also very interesting to see who is willing to walk and run following the snaking pattern and who has to walk or run in a straight line. Can you imagine people tolerating curving sidewalks in New York?

For Christmas we bought a relative a rattlesnake mug in the shape of a coiled snake. Not a wimpy cup with a picture on it. A lively discussion took place in the gift shop whether this was an appropriate present or not. My husband was wowed. I was horrified. Gradually everyone in the shop got involved in the debate. The sales clerks were clearly delighted to get that thing out of their gift shop, although they didn’t express it quite that vehemently. The deciding vote was cast by a Tucson geologist doing her Christmas shopping. “I know tons of guys that would adore getting a mug like that.” She and my husband were right. It was a hit.