A Rattler's Tale by Nancy Hicks Marshall

Author:Nancy Hicks Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nugget Press LLC
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

The dog behaves better than usual that day. She stops and barks only twice. She does not come over to check me out. I think she suspects that something out of the ordinary is up. Yes — it’s my tail, rattling a warning like crazy!

Despite my irritation at being interrupted, I do what I was bred to do. I warn Mrs. H. and Ms. Doggie. I raise my head to keep a beady eye on her and I raise my tail and I rattle. I rattle again. (FYI, my rattle moves at about 60 RPS — rattles per second). I’m displaying my potential, but at the same time showing respect. Just a “heads up,” as it were. You leave me alone; I’ll leave you alone. Pretty decent behavior, given that she is the intruder.

Immediately the dog barks again. Thank goodness she doesn’t run at me because I’d have had to take her out. Dogs are, after all, a natural predator. Sometimes they’re dumb, but they’re also dangerous.

Mrs. H. hears my rattle, looks up and notices me. I am curled in the grass by the edge of the road, head and tail aloft and alert. Great, I’ve warned her. I am here. I was here first. Do not come any closer!

Mrs. H. stops her walk. She starts talking to me in a calm, measured voice. No hysteria — no need. She is, after all, way beyond my striking distance.

“Hi, Mr. Rattlesnake,” she says (I’m making this up — I don’t understand human — but the tone sounds a lot like she might be saying something like this).

“Mr. Rattler, I’m holding my dog right here. We’re going to stay put. Why don’t you just keep on crossing the road? Then you can slide back into the grass and bushes where we are not planning to walk, and you can go on home. No harm, no foul, okay?”

Well, for all the world, it does seem like she’s granting me the respect I deserve. She stays rooted on her spot, still as can be, with the dog’s collar in her hand. Still, I didn’t quite trust her. After all, she’s human.

I decide to cross the road. I do it with dignity. I slither, kind of like a sidewinder (distant relative), but I keep my head high and my eyes on her at all times. My thin yellow-white strips glisten brightly across my beautiful black scaly back. Respect, but not exactly trust. Slither, sidewind, stare. Slither, side-wind, stare.

She doesn’t move. Finally, I make it to the other side of the road, which is my direction home, and I disappear into the grass. No harm, no foul. A win-win.

From either side you can call that a close encounter with respect.

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