..........
Totally kidding. No way would I ever get close enough to one to kill it. Roman is definitely the new family rattlesnake slayer. I mean really, who wants to get close to those things??
Yikes!! So thankful for my brave hubby! And since I know you are all dying to know how things went down, here is a short synopsis....
My mother called Roman Tuesday evening screaming. No literally, she was screaming really loud. Roman thought someone was in her house trying to kill her at first until he made out the words "snake" and "kill it". Usually my father or my brother are the slayers of all animals that don't have legs (a.k.a. snakes), but in this particular instance my father was out of town and my brother was at work.....leaving Roman to do the deed.
He immediately jumped in the car and drove to my mother's house (we live really close to them). They frantically searched for the shotgun and the shells and then Roman went outside.........only to find the rattlesnake was no longer there.
So now you can picture my mother and my husband slowly creeping through the yard with shovels and a shotgun, searching for a five foot long rattlesnake that was as thick as a bat.
Of course, since my mother is equipped with superpower eyes that can see snakes from miles away, she found it first. Unfortunately, as Roman went to load the gun, he realized he grabbed the wrong shells. So my mother had to go back inside to call my father so she could find the right shells and left Roman standing outside. With a shovel. Staring at a coiled up rattlesnake that was striking at him.
He said in that moment he remembered/realized just how afraid he was of snakes. I'm proud of him.....because if it were me I probably would have peed in my pants at least four times by now.
Finally, my mom found the correct shells and got them to Roman. He loaded the gun...aimed at the snake....pulled the trigger......and lost his hearing. No really. He said the gun was so loud that he couldn't hear for the first thirty seconds and his ears buzzed for the next five minutes, followed by a headache. Not to mention the fact that the shotgun just about flew out of his hands (luckily he was holding it next to his waist rather than propping it up against his shoulder, otherwise he would've had a nice battle
He blew a hole through the middle of the snake and totally blew off the rattlers. Bummer. I was hoping for a trophy. NOT. And because that's not good enough for my mom to know that the snake is truly dead, he also cut off its head with a shovel and then threw it into woods. Lovely.
So no, the picture above is not the snake he killed. He did take a picture....but it's kind of gross seeing as how the head is cut off and there's holes all in the middle of it. Scratch that, it's not kind of gross, it's pretty darn gross. I'm going to guess nobody wants to see it. I know I didn't.
The good news? Roman has officially been initiated into my side of the family, and I have a mother who is proud of her snake-slaying son-in-law. The bad news? Now he wants to buy more shells for his own gun since he swears he will never ever ever ever in a million years ever shoot my father's shotgun again. The other bad news? We forgot to let Duke smell the snake before Roman threw it in the woods so we could teach him to stay away from them. So we still don't know what he would do if he ever ran up on one. But at least he has had a rattlesnake booster shot, so it more than likely wouldn't kill him.
Ah, the adventures we have in the Casterline household! I hope all of you have a great (and rattlesnake free) weekend! I know I'm planning on spending a little bit of time by the pool.....after I do some laundry and clean my house, of course!!
"The word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.'" ~Ezekiel 12:1-2
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