Denizens of the Desert Page 2

Thorns and snakes......when I was a kid in the desert neither one bothered me (I had a shoe box full of baby snakes and lizards at all times...hahahaha...and I could run barefoot over bullheads and not get one in my feet/tough as hide)

I used to have desert tortoises too. But they always wandered away. No matter how much lettuce I fed them, eventually they went somewhere else. I also had a pair of water turtles my mom got me at Means Nursery. They had their own little pool with an island in the middle with a little plasic palm tree. They were so fun. But I got to feeling sorry for them because they never got to go out in the real sunshine, so one day I took them outside with me and put them on the front porch in the sun. I went off to play and having no concept of what the hot summer sun would do to that little pool of water, I was devastated when I came home to find it all dried up. Only one turtle was there and he was all bloated and dead, the water had completed dried up out of the pool. I don't know where the other turtle went. Must have tried to escape the boiling water and probably got eaten by some cat or raven or other thing. I feel awful still, just thinking about it!!! I was only about 7 years old.

Cathy (Padgett) Schmeer
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Actually Shasta and I came up on a Mojave Green sitting IN a bush. Rather weird I thought. Not under the bush, but in it! We were a good 10 feet away but he was rattling away, otherwise I would never have seen it. Shasta didn't bolt; just perked his ears forward and we made a very wide pass around it as did the other people on horseback.

I also had another incident with a Mojave Green. A few years back, I had been going in and out of my office in the trailer by the shop that also held the customer lounge at the time. I was in the shop building at the counter when one of our customers came in to tell us that a couple of boys were trying to catch a snake by the steps into the office. Fortunately one of our customers was also our friendly CHP officer (still is a friend of mine). He told the boys to get away from the snake which was coiled and ticked off. But making no sound. He and the tow truck driver got a steel noose out of the tow truck and Frank caught the snake and they held it for the animal control officer. After some discussion with the animal control officer, Frank came in my office and said he was going to call the local PD. He asked me if we had any threats lately and if most people knew this was my office. I said most of the customers do. But I didn't know of any threats. (I was involved at the time with suing a contractor...but that's another story). Anyway, he said he was concerned because upon examing the snake (which didn't make it-it was strangled by the noose while waiting for animal control) that the rattlers had been cut off. Not accidently. It was clearly a clean cut and a recent one. He believed the snake was placed there next to the steps and just under the trailer on purpose. He told me that this was an old trick and he said I was lucky having been going up and down those steps all morning, that I didn't get nailed. He made a report to the PD so it would be documented and the animal control officer was also concerned enough to give a statement as well.

Anyway, one of the things about that snake. It was really, really green and quite beautiful. It always makes me wonder why some of the most beautiful creatures are also among the most dangerous!

Cathy (Padgett) Schmeer
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I have had 3 encounters with rattlesnakes, none of them planned! It's alarming but not really terrifying. Now if I got bit.....that would be different!

Many years ago, my uncle was out driving down a deserted desert road in the middle of summer. So it was hot! He got pulled over by a couple of officers when he tossed a wrapper out the window. They cited him for littering and immediately put him to picking up trash on the side of the road. He was in a remote area and the officers left him there alone. Not long after they left, he reached into a bush and got nailed by a very large rattlesnake. He had no way to treat himself and so got in his car and started driving until he met a rancher on the road and the guy immediately cut the wound with his knife, and suctioned it out as much as possible and drove him into town to the hospital. Too much time had gone by though and the poison was already spreading in his system.

By the time the doctors got him admitted, his arm was swelling to 3 times its size and his face had begun to swell as well. He was in great pain and parts of his flesh was also looking black. He began to have serious trouble breathing and was administered several drugs and finally got the anti venom. He continued to worsen though and at one point, the doctors said he would not make it. My uncle had lost consciousness but woke up in time to hear the doctors say they were going to have to amputate his arm. They said it was his only chance. My uncle, a WWII vet and survivor of the Japanese sinking of the USS Carrier Liscome Bay in 1943, was having none of it. He told them, the arm stays put. He would take his chances.

He is still alive. It took many weeks to recover. Actually months. He had to have physical therapy and had some residual problems for awhile after that incident. But he is tougher than nails and of course, a Texan. Some times you just have to be meaner than the dog that bit you. Or in this case, the snake.

Cathy (Padgett) Schmeer
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