RE: snakes and gators and frogs OH MY!

[ISLNDGRL@aol.com]

   I have taken care of lots and lots of snake bite victims here in So. 
Fla......"the swamp" as Truman puts it.  The cotton mouths are way more 
aggressive.......there are stories that have been told to me about them 
swimming up to canoes and attempting to get in!! We also have the Coral 
Snake.......much deadlier if he chews on you......not much risk for a horse 
though.  Once had a paramedic bring a coral snake into my ER  ...LIVE! in a 
bag so we could do the positive ID thing.......I was like a mad woman trying 
to get the bag out of his hands , calling him every name I  could think of. ( 
all I could think of was what would happen if this thing got loose in the 
hospital !!  "Excuse me mam...let me just move your heart monitor out of your 
way.....oh my God your heart monitor is moving!!)  I took it out back and cut 
his head off with our bagel knife.........really grossed the staff 
out.......then dumped him down the water drain.  ( yes we still used the same 
knife for bagels the next morning)   Found a  huge coral snake once under my 
water trough......... I chased it through my pasture and yelled to my 
neighbor  Steve to bring me a shovel........he ran across to my house  tried 
to jump my fence and the hot wire was on.......he found out as one leg was 
across the fence!!!!   We did get the snake though.  About two years ago, a 
girl from our area was riding in Dupuis Reserve.......crossed a canal  and 
her horse began to jump and buck.....unusual for him........when she got back 
to camp she found the bilateral teeth mark scratches across her horses 
underbelly from a gator.......no joke! Also lost a ten year old boy to a 
gator during mating season.......
 How much does it snow in Ohio?
Kathy ( still looking for the Yellow Brick Road)
Jupiter , Fl
aka  The Swamp  


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