Snake Rescue Gone Bad

One day I received a frantic call from a woman with a rattlesnake on her patio.  I always responded to “snake calls,” because I knew that if I didn’t go, the snake would likely be killed.  While I was well aware that rattlesnakes weren’t well regarded by the general public, I was in the business of protecting wildlife, and like it or not, rattlesnakes qualify as wildlife.  So, I threw a large metal trashcan into the back of my patrol pickup as I left my home.  I felt it unlikely that one of our local rattlesnakes would be able to climb out of the trashcan.

Upon reaching the woman’s home, I verified that it was indeed a rattler, larger than average.  I therefore pinned its head down with a stick, carefully grabbed it close behind the head and carried it out to my truck.  When I lowered it into the trashcan, I still believed that it would be unable to escape.  As you can see, I was quite wrong.

As I was driving through the town of Oroville, I noticed people excitedly pointing at the trashcan.  I glanced in my rearview mirror, and was unhappy with what I saw.  Because the snake was riding on the rim of the trashcan and appeared to be enjoying the ride, I decided to keep going.  The snake rode there as I drove several miles out of town.  I released it at an out-of-the-way spot where it would be far less likely to be chopped in two with a shovel.

Speaking of rattlesnakes, I once had to enter and clear a house said to contain over 70 live rattlesnakes and a two-week-old dead body . . . but that’s another story.  If you find the chaotic and hazardous lives of  game wardens interesting, check out the true warden stories in my WARDEN FORCE book series at Amazon.