Rattle Snakes and Goats

[Charlie Horse]

Once upon a time, while hiking a canyon out behind the house, I heard a high pitch buzzing sound. It was a rattle snake, all balled up under a ledge. It was very small and I just ignored it, but from then on I was rather paranoid about encountering snakes in tight canyons. Not long after that I encountered this bull snake (we call them blow snakes because they puff up and his with a rushing-wind sound). These are harmless snakes that look a lot like a rattle snake. I decided it was a great chance to see what the goats would do if we encountered a more dangerous snake. This snake felt trapped and coiled up and put on a great show. The goats walked past it without a glance, except for Bacchus. Bacchus stared at it in a somewhat bored way for about 20 seconds, then carried on with the hike. I'm not so sure that I was pleased with their reaction :) I was hoping they'd dance around and skedaddle like horses do.