Yes it was a freaking surprise when the door bell rang just before 10pm Tuesday night and a passerby informed us that we had a rattlesnake on our front lawn. The little bastard was just moving on to the sidewalk to get to the street and when the young couple with their dog approached, they heard the usual, and yet unusual, sound of a rattlesnake warning someone to stay away! Kind though they were, they provided us with a convoluted mess to clean up.
Convoluted, you ask?
Yes! I said convoluted and yes, that's exactly what I meant! Because 1) who do you call when you've got a rattlesnake on your lawn? and 2) what are the chances that someone will actually be able to help you at 10pm?
You'd think Animal Control or the Animal Shelters could help... but no. Control was closed and the Shelter said to call Alberta Fish and Wildlife. But shocker there, AFW was closed too, with no emergency contact number listed. So what do you do? Call the police, the fire department? Well we tried that too. The police department said, and I'm quoting here: "We don't have the equipment to deal with something like that and neither does the city."
So what was there suggestion? Call AFW, again. I told the nice officer that we'd tried that and there was no one there because the offices were closed for the evening. She's all, "Hhmm, I'll give you the 800 number for AFW, it's a 24-hour call line. Someone will be able to help you there." So I take down the number and what's it for? After waiting for seriously 12 rings for the call to be answered, it's the 'Report a Poacher' line. I wasn't about to hang up so I told the guy who answered what the issue was and that I didn't know how to get a hold of AFW to deal with the snake because they were closed. He was kind enough to take my name and number and said he'd "pass it along." Whatever that means.
In the mean time Obie is outside with the people who spotted the thing in the first place and I don't know what they're doing to it but I can hear the snake rattling from inside the house. Then I hear him messing around with something in the garage and then the people are leaving and Obie comes in the house and says: "We managed to get the snake in to the garbage bucket, so I'll be right back."
So here I'm thinking, "He's going to go and dump it in the coulee or in the ditch by a field some where." Nope. He takes it up to the Fire Hall that's a couple blocks away and what do the 'nice' fireman have to say. "Sorry, we don't have anything to do with that kind of thing! But can we see it?" Yes that's right, typical of boys they wanted to play with the agitated, violent and caged rattlesnake. (Aren't they just the more brilliant of the species!)
So Obie brings the snake home with him. Entertainment you see, if nothing else. Jokes. The fireman actually offered to contact AFW for him and have someone pick the thing up in the morning. Of course, they couldn't have kept the reptile there. Fortunately just after 11pm we get a phone call (my call to 'Report a Poacher' apparently not as ineffective as it seemed at the time) and AFW has a man who'd be there in 10mins to get our new little venomous friend.
So the Conservation Officer arrives with his 'fancy' equipment (lets just say it's a stick with a pincher on the end of it) and transfers the snake from our bucket to his own and he's off on his merry way with a grumbled comment about having "never seen a rattler so far into the city before."
Now that the whole thing is over and dealt, I can look back and laugh at it, and bemoan the complete lack of assistance from city emergency personel but at the time it was really frustrating and more than a little nerve wracking knowing that there was a rattlesnake not even 10 feet from my front door. Even more scary when I remember that 40 minutes before the walkers spotted the snake, Arora was in the front helping tend the garden.
Yep.... It was an interesting night and I can safely say that I'll likely be intensely paranoid of the chance of there being more rattlesnakes in the yard when the kids go out to play. EEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!!!!
Convoluted, you ask?
Yes! I said convoluted and yes, that's exactly what I meant! Because 1) who do you call when you've got a rattlesnake on your lawn? and 2) what are the chances that someone will actually be able to help you at 10pm?
You'd think Animal Control or the Animal Shelters could help... but no. Control was closed and the Shelter said to call Alberta Fish and Wildlife. But shocker there, AFW was closed too, with no emergency contact number listed. So what do you do? Call the police, the fire department? Well we tried that too. The police department said, and I'm quoting here: "We don't have the equipment to deal with something like that and neither does the city."
So what was there suggestion? Call AFW, again. I told the nice officer that we'd tried that and there was no one there because the offices were closed for the evening. She's all, "Hhmm, I'll give you the 800 number for AFW, it's a 24-hour call line. Someone will be able to help you there." So I take down the number and what's it for? After waiting for seriously 12 rings for the call to be answered, it's the 'Report a Poacher' line. I wasn't about to hang up so I told the guy who answered what the issue was and that I didn't know how to get a hold of AFW to deal with the snake because they were closed. He was kind enough to take my name and number and said he'd "pass it along." Whatever that means.
In the mean time Obie is outside with the people who spotted the thing in the first place and I don't know what they're doing to it but I can hear the snake rattling from inside the house. Then I hear him messing around with something in the garage and then the people are leaving and Obie comes in the house and says: "We managed to get the snake in to the garbage bucket, so I'll be right back."
So here I'm thinking, "He's going to go and dump it in the coulee or in the ditch by a field some where." Nope. He takes it up to the Fire Hall that's a couple blocks away and what do the 'nice' fireman have to say. "Sorry, we don't have anything to do with that kind of thing! But can we see it?" Yes that's right, typical of boys they wanted to play with the agitated, violent and caged rattlesnake. (Aren't they just the more brilliant of the species!)
So Obie brings the snake home with him. Entertainment you see, if nothing else. Jokes. The fireman actually offered to contact AFW for him and have someone pick the thing up in the morning. Of course, they couldn't have kept the reptile there. Fortunately just after 11pm we get a phone call (my call to 'Report a Poacher' apparently not as ineffective as it seemed at the time) and AFW has a man who'd be there in 10mins to get our new little venomous friend.
So the Conservation Officer arrives with his 'fancy' equipment (lets just say it's a stick with a pincher on the end of it) and transfers the snake from our bucket to his own and he's off on his merry way with a grumbled comment about having "never seen a rattler so far into the city before."
Now that the whole thing is over and dealt, I can look back and laugh at it, and bemoan the complete lack of assistance from city emergency personel but at the time it was really frustrating and more than a little nerve wracking knowing that there was a rattlesnake not even 10 feet from my front door. Even more scary when I remember that 40 minutes before the walkers spotted the snake, Arora was in the front helping tend the garden.
Yep.... It was an interesting night and I can safely say that I'll likely be intensely paranoid of the chance of there being more rattlesnakes in the yard when the kids go out to play. EEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!!!!
This is on the sidewalk right, and I mean, right in front of our house. Obie's car was just outside the right hand side of the picture, probably only about three feet away from the snake.
An unhappy snake stuck in a 20L garbage can.
He's rattling like crazy! Whether it was that people were standing there watching it or that there was a dog close by (the walkers had their dog with them) but this snake was as irritated to see us as we were to see him!
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