by Jan Fielden
The other night or I should say, early morning, I was awakened by The Colonel who asked that age-old question: “are you awake?” Well, I thought of the age-old answer: “I am now!”. The Colonel told me I had to get up and come see what the dogs were barking about. But before I could get there he told me it was the biggest Copperhead snake he thought he had ever seen. So, here we go outside to look at this snake that he had killed and so I could take a picture of it.
It had been on top of the air conditioner! The Colonel had to take his gun and throw the snake off the compressor to the ground so he could shoot it. The Beagles were barking like crazy and darted in and out around the snake even after it had been killed. I thought I had seen some big snakes but never one this big. We didn’t measure it but figured it was about 44-48 inches. The Colonel got a shovel and picked up the dead snake to throw it over the fence. Both Beagles trailed him to make sure the snake would be gone, I suppose! I was surprised there was more blood than I expected. The snake was unceremoniously pitched over the fence. I came in and went back to bed but I could not go to sleep for wondering if there was another one out there somewhere, knowing full well there most likely is but also knowing the dogs will probably find it. We, will, however be on guard for a long while watching.
It took the dogs a while to calm down also. I asked The Colonel the next morning if he could feed the Beagles (I didn’t want to go outside!). You never know what is happening in the still of the night at The Red Oak Ranch!
