Danger! Snake!

I was working in my garden today. From time to time I'd sit down and cool off and when I did, I got lots of attention from the dogs. Parker got in my face so I tossed him a stick.



If Parker gets a stick, suddenly Trip is intensely intrigued by sticks and he wants THAT stick. Parker loves the game and they both bite the stick until one takes it away from the other. Polly got her own stick.



Rest time over, I went back to work in the garden. Parker, Trip and Polly played "stick". Parker took off running for the north side of the house, barking excitedly with Trip right behind him. I figured he saw a rabbit. A few minutes later, they ran around the front of the house to the other side, still yipping. I heard my husband yelling at them, so thought I'd go investigate. My husband said Trip had his feet on the top of the fence trying to get to the horses. That didn't sound like Trip's normal behavior, but I petted the dogs, petted the horses, called the dogs and headed back to the garden. Parker came, still barking, Trip refused to come and laid in front of the horse fence.



Since Trip wouldn't come, Parker ran back.



Clearly something was wrong, but what? Trip was definitely watching over his friend, Joe.



They looked like they were talking it over. What were they saying?



Sparkles snorted at a bunch of grass behind Joe, so I opened the gate and went to have a look. In the deep grass was a huge snake! I called my husband over and he came with a long tree branch. We ran down the list of poisonous snakes, Rattlesnake, Coral, Moccasin, Copperhead, and it was none of those. We figured it was a rat snake, and it was more than welcome to catch rats and gophers!



But the horses and dogs were upset with it being there. So my husband stuck the end of the branch under it and flipped it.



He kept flipping the snake until it went over the fence. The durn thing came right back! My husband flipped it over the fence again and this time it headed for the woods. The horses were safe from that awful ol' giant horse eating snake! We praised the dogs excessively and they wriggled, wagged and slobbered their happiness with themselves. Trip still wouldn't leave the horse fence. We were walking away and turned to see Trip and Joe talking again. We just awwww'ed at the sight--Joe had his head over the fence to Trip and Trip was licking his nose. Job well done Parker and Trip!

Dang - he's a big 'un. I pulled one out of a chicken area last year that was about 6.5 feet.... glad they're not poisonous!

I like snakes but have never been around the big guys and girls.

Good BOY!

That's awesome, Bay! Last summer, we had two different rat snakes near our chicken coop. They never bothered the eggs, but did a good job of keeping the mice away!

One night the dogs were barking up a storm. So, we went out, to see what was up. Deo had been "worrying" a big ol' rat snake, like yours, in the chicken yard. It had rolled itself up into a ball. DH got the hay fork & tossed it out of the chicken yard. And didn't it turn around & head right back through the fence!!! One more good toss convinced it to head in the other direction!

Don't ya just love it when one of the dogs does a great job protecting the animals? Your Trip is turning in to quite the awesome LGD!!! Like Southern said, "Good Boy!"

LOVE the way Joe & Trip are being so nicy nice! That is SO cool!

My dogs would've turned that snake into dinner.

Shake shake shake! Shake shake shake! Shake your booootay!


Great job letting it go. Good job boys!

Trip is becoming a very good dog! Your barn looks great! Love the pic(s) of trip and Joe "communicating"!

AND THAT is the ONLY good thing about living in the frozen tundra of Northern Minnesota That is WAY too big of a snake for me to encounter like that.... We have garder snakes up in these parts....

It's just wonderful seeing so many people appreciating snakes' value in the environment!

@Ferguson K the snake got through the horse wire before they could get it. It kept moving until it found that tall bunch of grass. The dogs ran around to the other side of the house, they knew it was there, but couldn't get to it. If they could have reached it, you're right, it probably would have been dinner! Paris killed a copperhead in the back yard last fall, she wasn't bitten, cause I sure checked her!