Guest Blogger Today

(I got this request to be a guest blogger after I wrote the story about my husband's hunting activities.)

Hi,
I'm Mr. La P. and I'm writing a guest blog for you today, so here's a Kansas short story.

Several years ago our Brittany, Kate, was barking at the bird feeder for some reason. She doesn't bark much, so I went out to investigate. Kate was barking while focusing on the bottom of the rod holding up the bird feeder. I looked carefully and noticed a small feather laying on top of the grass and moving with the wind. She was quite insistent with her barking and wouldn't go near it. I thought this to be strange since Kate is a well trained bird dog. I tried to calm her down but she wouldn't stop and just refused to go near it. This was very uncharacteristic of her. I went over to show her it was just a feather. I bent down and grabbed the feather. As soon as I did I heard the unmistakable sound of a rattlesnake. It took me just a second to spot it --- a foot or so from my hand --- nicely coiled up and ready for action.

Now I had a choice to make. Slowly withdraw my hand or quickly pull back. Make the wrong decision and I'm likely snake bit. Delay my decision and I could be snake bit. I very slowly pulled my hand back and backed away. I got Kate and put her in the house and dispatched the snake with a .410 (small shotgun). I noticed a lump in the snake's midsection and cut it open to find a sparrow. This snake was using our bird feeder as a bird buffet with very little effort involved. That's the only snake I've killed as I believe that just about all species have a place, however that place may not be our yard.
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Here's the interesting thing as far as I'm concerned. There were two lessons for me here:
1. The apparent problem is not always the actual problem.
2. Humans are not always the smartest species on this earth.