Father. Uncle. Husband. Grandpa!
It’s hard to believe it has already been one year since this little girl came into our lives! Here is a gratuitous slow motion picture of a running puppy for you to enjoy!
https://bradschauf.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/img_4266.movAnd here are some more pictures of her for your utter enjoyment:
Early Saturday morning October 27th, Linda let Tank and Bella out into the backyard as normal for their morning duties. There was no fuss or noise but Linda noticed that Tank had two blood spots on his nose when he came back into the house. She went outside and heard the snake and came and got me. Here we go again!
We actually have taken preventative measures and this is the first time a snake has gotten into the inner sanctum of our back yard. We have a mesh on the lower parts of the fence and deploy Snake Away pellets yearly. This has worked well, until now.
It was about 5:45am. I tend to lean towards a shotgun but Linda reminded me it WAS a bit early for that amount of noise and asked did I REALLY want to make that loud of a bang. She is smart. Shovel it is.
Here is the result:
Tank was a trooper, he didn’t make a fuss or really act differently but we still rushed him to the Emergency Vet Hospital so they could treat him. If you look at his nose you can see the rattler bit him at a 90 degree angle. You can also see the swelling starting in these pictures. Poor dude!
The question is always “was it a wet or a dry bite?”. Snakes usually won’t use their venom for a wet bite unless they can eat the pray. Obviously this snake was not going to eat Tank, but the blood work showed damaged red blood cells so there was some venom used.
They gave him antivenin (yes, thats spelled correctly, don’t ask me why but it is) and he stayed overnight for monitoring. We picked him up the next day. Bella was not the same without him around (she kept looking for him).
We learned later that Tank was the first of TEN snake bites that day. We believe its because its getting colder and the rattlers are looking for places to bed down for the winter.
I am sure there are those of you who are angry that I killed the snake. I bet I know who you are. Tough. There are plenty of them and they are not protected, its our land, our dog, our choice.
We decided to keep the skin and display it some way. Here is a look at how to skin a snake (there is more than one way).
That’s the text I received from Linda on her way…
Michael (the newly minted son-in-law) had sent a picture of a puppy he was trying to find a home for. I guess it was on Facebook as well. But I don’t do Facebook. I had no warning.
Apparently someone, somewhere along his chain of co-workers or friends or something had thought a new puppy was a good idea, brought it home and was told to get rid of it. I would like to someday meet this person. Anyway, a couple of friends passed her along until Michael ended up with her.
Now I know that Michael has a kind heart, I made sure of that over a year ago, so it really didn’t surprise me that he would take in a puppy. What surprised me was the multi-way text that included Linda and Shelbie with a picture of said puppy.
You see, Linda has been talking about getting a female dog, so I knew the outcome. We were going to go “pet” the puppy.
At the time I didn’t realize that her text was actually a typo. She may have typed “pet the puppy” but her heart meant “Get the puppy”. I am also a smart guy and adore my wife so you know the rest of the story.
Meet “Bella”, Italian for “Beautiful”.
Now I have two girls in my life who’s names mean “Beautiful”!
Milo and Tank are still getting used to their new sister. This is Tank watching over her in a rare moment of zero inertia.
I am going to send Linda a text later today. “Hey Honey, lets go pet the BMW R1200 GS Adventure!!”. How do you think that will go?
Yeah, I thought so.