Traumatized!!!!!

snake #1

So about a month ago Aaron went out on the patio to get something and as he was standing there looking around for it he heard a rattle but wasn't sure what it was, he started looked around then looked down at his feet and saw a rattlesnake like 6" from his foot. I was in the house and wasn't sure who was in our backyard all I heard was a voice that didn't sound like Aaron yelling "get back, get back!!" to the girls. He bolted into the house and said there was a rattlesnake out there. It was hiding under our grill right outside the door that we pass through about a million times a day, lots of times the girls just run out there, including Olivia. Ohhh,!! I was soooo freaked out (even talking about it now I'm getting the chills)! We weren't sure what to do, cause Aaron didn't want to kill it since it didn't bite him when it had the chance, but the thoughts of him catching it and carrying out to the desert to release it didn't sound like a good idea either. One of our neighbors came over to help Aaron take care of it. I was so nervous for them. We actually got this part on video but couldn't figure out how to download it, but the video is pretty funny because I am so freaked out the whole time, I repeat everything they say in a high pitched scared voice. So, they walked out there with shovels, brooms, rakes, and a big tote to put the snake in (the plan was to catch and release in the desert) while all us girls are glued to the sliding door watching everything from a safe distance. They didn't see it right away but then Aaron says "there it is, it's perched up" , of course I repeated in my scared voice "it's perched up" then they just stand there for what seemed like forever saying "it's coming towards us", I couldn't see it but I could hear it rattling it was making me crazy that they weren't doing anything about it. Then Nick (our neighbor) grabs his broom and slams it down on it's neck so it can't move. Then Aaron tells the girls to come have a look, I hate that idea but they do it anyway, so I decide to venture out and have a look myself. By this time the snake is really mad, it tries to jump and bite and move all over the place, but luckily Nick had a good enough hold on it that it couldn't move other than it's mouth and head which still freaked me out. They decided it was too mad now to try catching it so Aaron cut its head off with a shovel and it continued to rattle. It was so gross!!!!

I was so traumatized the next couple days, I really didn't want to even go outside, I was so jumpy at the littlest bug or anything I saw moving. We still had our tomato plants that were like a jungle (the perfect hiding place for a snake) and our little playhouse was a nice little spot I was sure a snake would be hiding in there and Olivia would go in and think it was a fun new toy and try grabbing it. My mind was just racing with the possibilities. So my paranoia was pretty bad for the first week or so, but then I got brave enough to pick tomatoes and let the girls go out without me scoping it all out first and then our friends come over about 2 weeks later . My friend looked soo freaked out when she walked in and then I hear her husband say yep its a rattlesnake! He told her to just keep walking and don't look down until she got in,. There right under our front door a rattlesnake was totally coiled up in the corner ready to hibernate for the winter. AAHHHH!!! I couldn't believe it. 2 within 10 days, it was so unbelievable. We were having dinner and I couldn't even enjoy it I was so sick to my stomach. I couldn't believe it, we were surrounded. I really felt like my life was ruined. Our backyard is like a sanctuary to me, I love sending the kids back there and I just love being outside but now I didn't even dare to. I already feel like Arizona's got a million of the weirdest looking insects and creatures around, plus there all on steroids, really they are all triple the size of normal things, like the grasshoppers and spiders - HUGE! So, by this point I am just beyond freaked out, I really didn't even dare go in the garage that night. Then the next day I am telling my neighbor about it and she says have you ever seen a gila monster? I didn't even know that was a real thing, well she informed it was very real and my neighbor actually has one in his garage. She told me he found it just walking on the road not too far from here and she told me that they kill people by latching on to them and just injecting poison until you die. GILA MONSTER!!!

That just put me over the top. I cannot believe we live among so many crazy, deadly creatures. I decided we've got to get out of here, I can't handle one more rattlesnake encounter or whatever other creatures are lurking about.

It's been a couple weeks now since the 2nd encounter, but the blood on the front porch remains there, at first I thought it would just be a cool Halloween decoration since it was just a few days before, but since we haven't had any more snakes I think maybe it is scaring the other snakes away cause they know what will happen if they come to this house. Then again maybe they want revenge.