Why desert life?
Desert life, why do people chose it? Sure, there are beautiful sunsets, gorgeous flowers and starry night skies. But there are also snakes, scorpions and spiders. If you have been reading my blog lately you already know that my family is currently living with my in-laws. Their home and property is absolutely beautiful and there are very few neighbors nearby. The lack of neighbors keeps the views of surrounding desert and mountains unobstructed.
Did I mention the wildlife? There is ton of it. Everyday I get to see beautiful cardinals and these other little yellow birds, I am not sure what they are, but they are very pretty. With all of this beautiful wildlife there is also danger. We are completely aware of the fact that there are several venomous snakes in the area. When we moved out here we did what most and every dog owner should do, we had our dogs go through snake avoidance training. We had our first visit by a snake 21 days after the training.
Did the snake avoidance training work?
Unfortunately, the snake avoidance training was not a total success. This past Friday morning while my kids and I were working on what was supposed to be this week’s blog post, a rattlesnake paid us a visit. My daughter noticed the dogs going crazy outside and yelled for me, telling me that she thinks there is a snake. Sure enough, the second I opened the door I heard it… it was so loud, four dogs barking their heads off and the rattle, holy shit the rattle, it was so much louder than I ever expected. What the hell, snake avoidance training, these dogs were definitely not avoiding the snake at all, in fact they had it cornered and were trying to get it!
I ran out shoeless, braless and in my pjs and started called for the dogs to come in. My beagle mix Charlie came bolting in followed by my in-laws large dog Dyson. Ok, two inside and safe, now for the two jack russells. They were relentless! It took me throwing chicken breasts at them to get one of them in. Since my small jack russell, Lucy, was still very much in the rattlesnake’s face and not listening, I decided my only option was to get dressed and ready to take her to the animal hospital when she inevitably gets struck. I passed by Charlie who was locked safely in his crate. OH NO! Half of his face was swollen. Well, now getting to the animal hospital needed to happen fast.
the juggling act
Did I mention I was alone at the house for the weekend? No? Well I was, making this situation a juggling act. Packing up the toddler, calming my hysterical daughter enough to be helpful and getting to the car safely with a rattlesnake near. My father-in-law who was celebrating his birthday at Jazz Fest in NOLA, called the neighbor who showed up just in time to remove the threat. Our dog Lucy’s focus was finally broken and we called her to come in the car with us. All loaded up, house secure, we sped to the vet 15 miles away.
Whew, we made it just in time. Charlie was looking much worse and his condition was not good. The vet-tech gave our smaller, less obedient dog a once over to make sure she was ok. We waited in a room while the staff worked on Charlie. Once they had time to assess, they gave us the game plan (and bill). Now knowing that he was in good hands, we left. We headed home to recoup and wait by the phone for updates.
the call
The call came about four hours after we got home. BTW, I struggled with getting out of the car and getting my kids inside. I was convinced rattlesnakes were lurking around every corner and rock. Back to the call, he was doing well, the anti-venom was working and his blood tests were coming back within a normal range. We could pick him up a few hours later, but they wanted to make sure that I understood that he looked alarmingly worse. In my mind I knew that there was probably a lot of swelling but I really didn’t expect what I saw when picking him up.
Warning! Image below may be upsetting.
finally home
After a really long and really slow drive we were finally home. Getting this high anxiety dog inside with this gigantic e-collar on was extremely stressful. My daughter was given the task of bringing her brother, who was throwing an epic toddler tantrum, inside safely so that I could bring in Charlie. It took me about 10 minutes just to figure out how to carry a dog who does not “get carried”. I think the pain killers helped a little. I was able to pick up the dog bed that he was standing on and very carefully carry him in standing on it. Every muscle in my body was tense and my fingers screamed in pain, I could not let it slip.
Once inside, I set him down in the laundry room. With a couple of crazy shakes of his head, the e-collar flew off. Damnit! How the hell am I supposed to get this on him when it took three people to do it at the animal hospital? Fortunately he didn’t seem interested in pawing at his wound. He took his meds like a champ and passed out for the night. Finally I could tend to my toddler. The three of us sat around the table kind of in a daze, ate some Oreos, got a little goofy and decided it was time to call it a day. Good riddance!
Charlie’s recovery
It has now officially been one week since the snake bite. Charlie’s recovery has not been easy. This high stress dog needs to be pretty heavily sedated just to avoid further injury to his face. He is in fairly good spirits and wants so badly to run around with the rest of the pack. In reality, he ends up spending most of the day resting and receiving the VIP treatment.
Our Desert Life
Our lives have changed greatly since our temporary move out to the desert. We are so grateful for the opportunity to live with family and hopefully save money for our new home. Each day we face a new challenge whether it being a rattlesnake in the garden, a scorpion in the cookie cutter drawer (yes that literally just happened) or a spider at every turn. Hopefully in the end we will come out of this less intimidated by the desert critters. I am sure I will have more to share with you wonderful readers.
My planned post should be coming soon. We were working on a play dough experiment and comparison. Hopefully it will FINALLY be ready for you next week. Thank you for reading!
-April J aka ZonaMom
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