Today is the second week of my new four-day workweek and I’m paralyzed with indecision of how to spend my extra day of freedom.
A bike ride is tantalizing but the garden beckons. The house is a mess but I know if I spend Friday cleaning, it will be dirty again by Sunday (more accurately, Friday night). I absolutely MUST wash Mum’s hair and clean her house, but it can wait until I’m too tired to do anything more strenuous. And then Molly and Sadie are lobbying hard for a walk in the wash on this cool, overcast, snake-free morning.
Speaking of snakes, we stumbled upon two of them on our hike last weekend. Walking in a group of four women, up a familiar trail, nobody was paying much attention to the surroundings. Three of us AND my two dogs were already past a gopher snake stretched half-way across the trail, before MFN Tara pointed him out to us. Later, Tara spotted another beautiful specimen slithering across the driveway, in the parking lot. Again, Molly and Sadie were not at all interested, making me wonder if their anti-rattlesnake training had been effective.
And here I sit, squandering my Friday off!
judyrutrider 
Anytime you write a post is not time squandered! How exactly do you do anti-rattlesnake training?!
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It’s actually quite comprehensive: They put a shock collar on the dog, and then the trainer takes your dog (on leash) around a field where there are rattlesnakes planted. One is just a skin that they can go right up to and smell. The live ones are in cages so they can’t hurt an aggressive dog. When the dog approaches the snake, the trainer presses the button that activates the shock collar. My dogs got it on the first try and wouldn’t approach the snakes at all after the first zap; but there was one of those mindless, yappy little dogs who just didn’t catch on. Every time he saw the snake, he went ballistic and the trainer kept turning the juice up a notch. It was sickening to watch because the poor little guy just didn’t have the brain power to understand the connection. Molly, my Border Collie, not only got it, but quickly ascertained that it was the trainer who was inflicting the discomfort on her. He brought her back to me saying that she was acting like she wanted to bite him.and he thought it best to terminate the session.
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Finally, Judy , you will have to make a planning to organize your three days of freedom to enjoy them fully .:)
Are the gophers snakes are venonous ?
Love ❤
Michel
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No, gopher snakes are not venomous though at first glance they rather resemble rattlesnakes. Of course closer observation reveals a sleek head and body, not the viper’s triangular head and thick body of the rattlesnake.They are the most commonly seen snake in this area, probably not because they are most numerous, but likely they are the least persecuted.
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