Leo found a rat snake in the yard today. Pretty big bugger too, probably 4-5 feet long. Now, he “protected” us from a very large turtle last week, but I rather discounted that because it was, well, a turtle. But he has shown us that he’s no dummy…he barks *very* insistently, but won’t get close to them. A lot of our turtles are big snappers, so that’s a good thing…happens that the one he found was a regular painted turtle, but still.

Anyway, when I heard him sounding the alarm today I went out to take a look. The snake was very ticked and coiled up to protect itself, and Brady the big idiot was wagging and approaching it like a plaything. And here I thought he was the smart one, but he reacted the same way to the turtle too. Leo wouldn’t get within 5 feet of it and was barking very ferociously. Lizzie was, as usual, by the door wanting to come in and hang out on the couch LOL.

So. It’s a little gratifying to know that at least ONE of my dogs will let us know if something is amiss and also is smart enough to keep his distance. For the record, we’ve lived in this house for 3 years and hadn’t seen a snake until the last 2 weeks. This is the second large snake we’ve found recently, I think the first one was a rat snake too but not 100% sure. Still, I really don’t like snakes too much, and the first one was in the garage which creeps me out. Dave killed that one…normally I’d prefer to let snakes loose, especially ones that eat rodents, but not if they’re going to be IN MY GARAGE. *shiver*