The poor thing!

LarissaAnn · December 2010

Gotta love Kentucky: I didn't recognize it, so I shot it.

Five_letter · December 2010

It looks like a hairless dog.

Poor creature.

justrachet · December 2010

You've got to be careful about possible chupacabras! </sarcasm>

Vikki2pay · December 2010

That thing was kinda creepy.

burkems · December 2010

I read Marcy's comment before going to the article and immediately knew it had to be a story about the chupacabra. I would say that is quite a stretch! I vote cat.

LarissaAnn · December 2010

Looks like an even more hairless chihuahua to me. Could be anything. But that attitude of "I didn't recognize it so I shot it" blows my mind.

Quilty · December 2010

That sort of attitude is rampant in this country - shoot it if you don't want it in your backyard!

The only animal-like creature I would purposely kill without the express intent of eating it - and do so with a glad heart - is a snake. I hate those little ba$tard$.

LarissaAnn · December 2010

Aw, I like snakes. Of course, on NJ we're highly unlikely to see rattlers in our yards. If we were, I'm not sure I'd feel as affectionate toward them.

Quilty · December 2010

I worry more about copperheads and cottonmouths (mocassins) than the rattlers. And I have a very strict policy of kill a snake first, ask no questions, ever. LOL

I am convinced that I died a horrible death in a snake pit in a former life. Everyone is wary of snakes, and a few people are afraid, but I'm the only person I know who cannot function in the presence of a snake ... I literally become incapable of moving. It's amazing that I can actually enjoy being outdoors ...

LarissaAnn · December 2010

Ouch, are you sure Texas is the right place for you? In NJ almost every danger we have is human. Easier to see and ID.

Quilty · December 2010

Oh, it isn't too bad. I make a habit of making lots of noise to scare off snakes when I'm outdoors (not kidding), and I've run across less than a dozen or so in my life that weren't scared of me and/or took off before I got to them.

Memorable exceptions - when I was in third grade or so, we were walking home from the bus when one of the boys in our group spotted a mocassin in the ditch. Moron picked up a rock and threw it at the snake, who then turned and made a beeline for us. Fortunately, there were some construction workers on the other side of the road who heard us scream and they ran over and killed the snake. That was when I realized that snakes are not always more afraid of you than you are of them.

One early morning, I was headed off to school wearing a dress and high heels, no less. I was in HS, and I stepped out on the front porch nearly onto a snake - probably a garden variety but I didn't bother to ask it if it was poisonous or not. I nearly broke my neck trying to scurry back into the house to get away from it. My mother went out back and got a hoe to kill it (she didn't ask it if it was poisonous either) and I ran past the already dead snake to get to the bus (after I left the house from the BACK door).

Another time, when I was but a young thing, my dad killed a HUGE rat snake in the backyard of our house (the only house that we lived in that was in an actual neighborhood). It totally freaked me out and I have had recurring nightmares of snakes ever since.

And finally, a few years ago when I took my kids to Washington DC, I first had to pick my daughter up from her dad's place out in a rather rural area south of Houston. On the way back to the freeway after picking her up, I saw what appeared to be a long strand of VCR tape crossing the road just ahead of us, which I thought odd, since we were in the middle of nothingness. When I reached the spot where the "tape" had left the road, I looked over to see not a piece of tape, but instead a very long mocassin curled up just off the edge of the pavement. I fervently wished I had been able to run the little ba$tard over.

I really do hate snakes, and the only good snake is a dead one. I dread the day I may happen across one of the pythons or boas that have been set free by morons into the wilds.

burkems · December 2010

Quilty, if it makes you feel better, DH does his part in killing the snakes of the world when he mows- he mows our acreage, two cemeteries and another huge acreage with pasture. He kills at least one snake every time he's in the cemeteries. He freaking HATES snakes. I have never come across one in person. I have a feeling I would throw up, though.

Quilty · December 2010

Could you please shake his hand for me and tell him that he might be one of the top five people in the world in my book? LOL!

LarissaAnn · December 2010

Holy crap, Jill, you've got real reason for your fear. And BTW, I hate people who release any pets, but especially reptiles. So many idiots think that because they're not furry and don't need walking, reptiles are easy to care for, when they're actually probably the most difficult. And then they release thrm into the environment, endangering the animal and messing with local ecology.

justrachet · December 2010

H wants to kill every snake he comes across, but he's never killed one while he's with me. Usually, we just come across them when we're hiking (coral snakes, cottonmouths, and nonpoisonous snakes) In Kenya, he'd just kill it with a stick, but I'm not going to let him go after a poisonous snake with only an 8" twig, and if it's not poisonous, it poses no threat, so I don't let him kill those either. He tries, but I rustle the grass with my feet and scare the snake off before he can.

janda309 · December 2010

1. That thing looks like a hairless chihuahua.

2. Quilty - I'm with and the snakes. We had a garden one on our porch a couple of months ago. I froze. I couldn't run, speak...nothing. Fortunately, I have an ex-military man neighbor who is a little too talkative at times who noticed the look of terror on my face and came running over. He picked the snake up and took it to his yard. I informed him he better kill it or he might have a dead neighbor.

3. Swimming in a creek as a child I encountered a water moccasin. It was a bunch of my neighborhood friends because what else do you do in the summer here? You stay in water anywhere you can find it.....until you find a snake. To this day, I can't get in a lake, creek or pond unless it's clear water. I freak out!

LarissaAnn · December 2010

janda309:

3. Swimming in a creek as a child I encountered a water moccasin. It was a bunch of my neighborhood friends because what else do you do in the summer here? You stay in water anywhere you can find it.....until you find a snake. To this day, I can't get in a lake, creek or pond unless it's clear water. I freak out!

I have the same issue with oceans - once as a teen, I was standing in the ocean off the Jersey shore and felt a claw - lobster or crab - kind of almost close on my foot but drag off instead. Murky oceans have been off my list ever since.

The poor thing!

Re: The poor thing!

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