Ever have an incident that left you permanently shook up?

General General Discussion
1

I am still contemplating this one.

For those that don’t know, I live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere in the desert southwest.

Last Friday evening I had just finished eating supper. It was pleasant outside. I decided to poke my head out and see if it was going to be stormy or the clouds were going away. Maybe I’d go to a friend’s house or something.

I opened the screen door like I always do. I stepped on something that felt “spongy”. Immediately it started rattling and I knew I had just stepped on a rattlesnake right at the front door.

I was already too far out of the door to just pull my leg back in, and not knowing his orientation or how many seconds it was going to be until I felt a pair of fangs in my leg, I quickly leaped out onto the porch and as far away from the snake as possible. I must have flung the screen door open as far as possible too, because I could hear it start to swing shut as I landed.

As I looked back, the snake was crawling into the house through the open screen door!

Just as he was about two-thirds of the way into the house, I quickly slammed the screen door on his body so he couldn’t go any further.

As he sat there trapped, rattling furiously, I wiped my brow and thought to myself “What the fuck do I do now?” If I opened the door, the snake would crawl into the house the rest of the way and would be nearly impossible to get at safely.

For what seemed like several minutes even though I suppose it was only a few seconds, I stood there staring at the angry snake’s tail rattling, wondering how am I going to get out of this one.

All my guns were in the house. So was my cell phone, not that I could just call up animal control and have them drive all the way to the ranch anyway.

Finally, I ran to the back yard and got the pitchfork. I carefully jabbed one of the tines of the pitchfork through the snake’s body. When the tine passed all the way through, I knew I had enough meat hooked to give me some leverage.

What would I do now? Could I open the door and get the snake out of the house before it could coil up and strike? Do I really have enough meat hooked that the snake won’t wiggle free as soon as I open the door? Are my arms long enough that I’ve been able to keep my distance–and if the snake does coil up and strike as I pull it out of the house that I won’t get bit?

I must have done the classic “1…2…3…” as I slowly opened the door. With the other hand I slung the skewered snake into the driveway as far as I could and as fast as I could. He tried to coil up and strike as I flung him across the yard, but he failed. He landed about fifteen feet from me. The snake was now wounded of course, and as mad as Hell. He immediately coiled up into strike position. That snake looked at me with its cold black eyes and flicked its tongue out, tail rattling all the time.

I knew that I had won, though. I ran into the house and got the single shot H & R .410. When I returned the snake was trying to crawl away, obviously groggy from the wound and the fight. Game over. I sent his brains into the dirt in a triumphant pull of the trigger.

I probably finished a twelve pack that night without ever tasting a single beer.

Several days later, I’m still shook up over this. Every summer from now on I will have to open the screen door just a crack to see what’s there every time I go outside.

In all my years I was in law enforcement, I never had an incident that shook me up like this one. Maybe it’s because it was in my own yard, or because it was a dangerous animal instead of a human, but I feel I won’t be the same after this. I can only imagine that an AR “kaboom” would be about the only thing that could leave me as shook up.

2

I think it’s definitely something about it happening in or around your own home. Iraq / Afghanistan events pretty much never bother me, but sure enough every time I see a damn raccoon, I’m reminded of the time a rabid raccoon chased me about 1/4 mile through my neighborhood when I was a kid (maybe 10 or 11). It was hissing, wheezing, and falling over at about 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Knew it was rabid as soon as I saw it. We locked eyes and the fucker started running straight for me. We were in a pretty much wide open field, so the only thing to do was run away; there was no cover to be taken. It was only about 10 to 15 feet behind me the whole 1/4 mile sprint, occasionally tumbling over and rolling before picking itself back up and continuing to chase me. Luckily, the house door was unlocked and I made it up the porch and through the door before it got me. It just laid down on the porch, foamed at the mouth, and died right there. My dad took care if it afterward.

Even now as a grown ass man, I don’t like seeing raccoons. It’s pretty ridiculous.

3

Your home is the place you feel safe. A lot of animals share a commonality with humans in picking where they reside and feel that they are safer there than elsewhere. (Deer and ducks for instance). If they feel threatened or something happens to them at their home where they no longer feel safe, they will quickly leave it.

When a traumatizing experience happens at your home, the place you feel safe at, it amplifies the experience.

While its pretty normal to try to avoid a place where you had a traumatizing experience for a while (such as having a accident at a particular intersection), it occurring at your home will affect you more, because you can’t get away from it. You can’t get away from walking on your front porch, where you had the snake incident.

I don’t believe I have had a very traumatizing experience in my life yet.

4

If you’d have just grabbed that rattle tail and started whipping him around like a pair of nunchaku and then helicopter spin for the big release you wouldn’t be nearly as stressed out.

:smiley:

Honestly though, if you live in the middle of nowhere you live WITH the critters. Hell I live in a densely populated area but it’s still S. Florida and that means we still live WITH the critters (especially at night).

I always assume there is some kind of shit outside my doors.

5

When I lived in Sacramento, CA when I was a kid. I lived in the North Highlands area, and there was a drive by shooting on my block, and several bullets hit my house. Actually… let me correct myself. They all hit MY ROOM because our house was at the end of the block, and several of the bullets went through my window, inches above my head. Shards of glass went all over me.

I was about 10.

This happened more than once, however that was the only time it hit my room or anywhere close to me.

I still refuse to sleep under a window.

Not as bad as a rattlesnake, because bullets aren’t poisonous and I’d have had a better chance of surviving than the OP. But still sucked.

6

Marriage:suicide:

7

Growing up in rural NC, it was not an uncommon summer practice, for our Scout Troop to gather at the Scout Hut, and then backpack out to one of the boy’s farms (+/- 5 miles) and camp for the weekend.

One such weekend, a boy about my age at the time (14-15) was down by the creek, and about to leap over to the other side. In mid-air, he suddenly noticed a rattlesnake sitting right where he was about to land! :eek:

He screamed, the snake screamed… and Darry actually managed to change direction mid-air, and land where the snake was NOT! Of course, the snake was already moving out at a pretty good clip in the opposite direction, too! :stuck_out_tongue:

Just being unexpected, it shook us up for a few moments too… but we laugh about it now, 30+ years later.

8

C’mon man, it ain’t all that bad…at least the third one anyway.

:smiley:

Doc G - not only would I not have tasted an entire bottle of bourbon but it would have taken days to clean up the mess from my evacuated bowels.

9

I still wake up in cold sweats :stuck_out_tongue:

10

LOL–I forgot that part. Right after the incident I had a pretty copious bowel movement myself, although I didn’t have a clothing contamination scenario.

After typing my first post I remembered an incident with my dad when I was a kid. I wasn’t there to witness it, but my dad, normally a red-complected farmer, came into the house rather pale looking.

He described accidentally disturbing a couple of rattlers as big around as a child’s arm, and how he “gently” brushed them away with a shovel. The shovel’s handle, BTW, was split lengthwise and splintered.

:smiley:

11

I’ve read that snakes actually trigger an ingrained physiological startle response that is genetically hardwired into the brain. A “reptilian brain” (pardon the pun) fear response that evolved millions of years ago.

Nice to know it’s still operational and not entirely obsolete. :smile:

12

Ha, ha, ha! That’s just so very, very… RIGHT! :smiley:

Wait, what am I laughing about, I’m married…:cray:

This should fix it…:alcoholic:

And this…:suicide:

13

+1 this.

14

One would think.

And yet, there she sits, in your house with all your shit. :lol:

15

I always look outside before opening the door. A skunk sprayed my dog that way when I was 10ish. Dog must’ve startled it.

16

Well there was this one time in Bangkok, when I was with a beautiful Thailandese woman who turned out to be a beautiful Thailandese man.

j/k :jester:

17

Same with getting out of the truck. After one close call, I always take a look at the ground before hopping out of the cab when I’m in the field.

18

I see marriage has already been covered.

I have a few, but most of those I save only for me. The one that really stands out was the first time I ever saw someone get killed up close. Happened when I was 17 and a new 11B graduate at my first unit. Our 11Cs worked out of M113s, and a combination of bad circumstances and human error resulted in a mortarman being decapitated by a concrete practice round about ten feet from where I was standing.

I could have done without seeing that.

19

*Thai :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m starting to get skunk smells coming from the backyard. Don’t know if I should check…

This is what I get for mowing the front and neglecting the back. :mad:

I wonder if skunks release odor after a headshot?

20

well No snake story.

But I was driving a Big truck in 04 coming back from Florida and a logger truck goes flying past me on the road. I tried to raise Him on the CB to let him Know i had seen Local PD in the area and we come up on a intersection .

A family in a Minivan pulls out in front of him and he Smashes them .we locked down and I jump out with my first aid kit on the phone calling the HP .
I get to the back of his truck and see him coming around the corner throwing up I stopped in my tracks.
I asked “are you ok ? what about them ?” he looks at me and shouts" I killed them ,I didn’t mean too OH GOD!!!".

I run back to my truck and pull up next to him to Block other motorist from seeing the wreck.
using my trailer to block the scene I jumped back out and ran to the van (wish I didn’t) the family was gone the Mother groaned a little so I ran to her side.
But never got a response from her and she died right in front of me. I then turned to help the trucker he was going into shock possible heart attack he was a older man . I stayed with him until EMT arrived.

I sat in my truck and watch one by one a family of 5 being taken out and wrapped in sheets ,3 being children youngest maybe 1 -2 years old others Kids hard to tell. Gave my report and drove 5 1/2 Hours it shock sick to my stomach Back to My Hub .

Being a trucker I have seen many wrecks and bodies on the road but that one to this day still makes me shiver. I hugged My daughter so tight that night .and it completely changed the way I drive.

it also caused me to get out of trucking a few months later and I joined the Military .Now I am back in trucking so only time will tell before i see another accident