Snake rescue is tricky business, but can be extremely rewarding. Here are two stories about rescues right here in Fort Collins one written by Amy Satterfield and another about a recent rescue of an injured rattlesnake.
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Fort Collins Weekly
June 22, 2005
This End Up
By AMY BERNARD SATTERFIELD
I sat on the front stoop in warm June sunshine. The dogs in their fenced-in meadow barked insistently. “What’s wrong?” I asked. Then I heard, “Shhhh-t-shhhh-t-shhhh-t-shhhh-t,” like water coming from an oddly ticking, high-pressure hose. I looked around. Breeze rustled the Spirea. The earth was only slightly damp from yesterday’s rain.
I live in the mountains northwest of Fort Collins in my Home as Retreat. Many people like me have invaded the foothills. Our ongoing lesson, among others, is to find ways to share paradise with the animals we’ve been elbowing out of it.
By this, I do not mean share our living quarters. We left the back door open for two days once so our Labrador could go out while we were away. Deer mice built a Hantavirus Breeding Lab in the basement, a rabbit nested under the futon, and a bobcat pooped by the ping-pong table. The dog was OK with this.
I wasn’t. I mean share the natural space around us, like the garden next to my front stoop, even with the rattlesnake [see rattlesnake pictures] .
The one that was now mimicking an oddly ticking, high-pressure water hose, coiled 8 inches from my bare foot. Slowly, I rose and stepped backward into the house without further antagonizing the reptilian psycho.
I did a five-minute impression of Chicken Little around my living room, arms flailing, unable to say anything except, “Oooooh! Oooooh! Oooooh! Oooooh!” I called to my daughter: “Mari! There’s a rattlesnake at the front door!
“OK!” she said.
I found her response unsatisfying. “Mari! There’s a rattlesnake [see rattlesnake pictures] at the front door! Do you want to see it?”
“Sure,” she said, in a tone 13-year-olds use when they mean, “I hope I don’t grow up to be like you.” She ambled upstairs and looked out our front window, which perfectly showcased the rattlesnake like in a real zoo exhibit. “Cool,” she said, and went back to her electronic utopia.
I have other doors, so I don’t need the front one. And with my husband going out of town, the Rattlesnake-as-Doorman would be handy for a few days. I didn’t want to kill the snake – I’m learning to live with nature, and killing it seemed somehow against it. Most folks out here shoot rattlesnakes. They’ll see one on the road, even miles from their house, and they’ll get out of their truck, shoot the snake, then get back in and drive away. Why do they do that?
And why wasn’t our snake going anywhere? I asked her this two days later from about 12 feet. She rattled something, and I ran away.
My folks would visit soon, which means the snake would bite my dad because dad would wander into the garden after forgetting there was a rattlesnake there. So I called Animal Control, which referred me to Steve Russ, the owner of Snake Wranglers, an organization that removes and relocates snakes from private property in Larimer and Weld counties for free. He does this because he loves snakes and hates to see them hoed into little bits just because people fear them in Biblical proportions.
I called him. He was in Florida.
The snake stayed. I thought she was pregnant and didn’t want to travel. I know nothing about snakes, so this was random. But after I thought it, I liked her even more.
The FedEx man came to the door. I told him there was a rattlesnake near his feet and he should come into the house and leave through my garage. He had another delivery two days later which he left a mile and a half away. I will never see him again.
The Snake Wrangler returned from Florida and arrived to move the snake. Why hadn’t she left, he asked? Because she had been strapped to the Spirea all week with some plastic netting I put down three years ago to keep the deer from eating the then-new plant. She had slithered into it and got stuck.
Her rescue was tense. Steve would approach the Spirea and cut some netting off the rattlesnake with my kitchen scissors, then jump away again, dodging the snake who was trying to kill him. Steve would ponder his mortality, then attack the netting from a different angle. After a lot of dodging and jumping, he freed the snake from the Spirea and slid a plastic tube over her poisonous little head while he cut the rest of the netting from her body. She looked like an Easter ham that’d been tied with strings, all marked with crisscrossed lines. Steve dropped her into a bucket, and within minutes, her rattle grew stronger, her head more active as circulation returned. Steve took her far up behind the house and released her on a sunny, warm rock near a charming Victorian mouse community. It was a two-hour rescue, and Steve was happy because he got to save a snake.
I ripped the netting out from under my plants, thinking about how much more fun and satisfying it had been to rescue and relocate that snake than it would have been to shoot her. If a rattlesnake enters your Home Zone, I recommend you call Steve the Snake Wrangler at 217-9452. And you can make a tax-deductible donation on his Web site (www.snakewranglers.com) to help him pay for gas – a nice way to support efforts in the area to help us actually live with nature.
Satterfield can be reached at Amy.Satterfield@Colostate.Edu.
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Injured Rattlesnake Rescue
Steve Russ
On June 25, 2005, I captured an injured rattlesnake on a dirt road in Wellington, Colorado. The snake appeared to have been hit by a bike/motorcycle or car and there was severe damage done to the left side of his face as you can see in the photos. The mouth was split open and the venom gland along with other tissue was exposed. Other than the facial injury the snake appeared to be in good health; very active with rattling and strikes but bleeding and obviously in serious trouble.
I took the snake home and begin making phone calls to vets and humane societies across the state trying to find someone who would be willing to operate on a “hot” snake. After almost 3 weeks the outcome was bleak. I thought I may have to put him down but finally I received a call from Dr. Combs of West Ridge Animal Hospital. He received clearance from the Division of Wildlife to work on the snake so I brought him in immediately.
Once Dr. Combs determined that he could remove the now dead tissue and sew up the wound we put the snake under and began the tricky operation. I held the snake’s head while Dr. Combs cut off the tissue, inserted antibiotic beads, sewed up the wound and injected him with fluids to help with hydration.
The snake is now recovering at a friends’ house and should be working on his first meal in almost a month. After I determine he can eat and has made a full recovery he will be released back into the wild where he belongs.
I would like to extend my thanks to Dr. Combs and his professional staff at West Ridge. If it weren’t for them this snake would not have survived. I highly recommend this facility for your pet. You can contact Dr. Combs at 970.330.7283. I would also like to say thanks to Richard for watching after the snake over the last few weeks. I could not have done this without his assistance.
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