I recently came up on a Cottonmouth right beside one of our cats, not far from our back door! I didn't have time to get a gun, just a machete. The snake paid the cat no mind but he sure was interested in me even before I had the machete lol. When my sons were young, my maternal instincts overcame my terror enough that I could kill a snake with whatever was at hand. When my sons became teenagers they insisted on killing them. They skinned them and tacked the skins up on their fort and cooked and ate the snake-meat. Anyhoo - the snake and I had a Mexican stand-off, I just couldn't make myself get close enough to give him a machete chop, he was obviously coiled and waiting on me to make a move. I did get the cat away from him though. Finally it slithered away, so then I got brave and chased it all the way to the woods and threw the machete at him, teh heh, that'll teach him to come in my yard and bother my cat! (Not)
I recently came up on a Cottonmouth right beside one of our cats, not far from our back door! I didn't have time to get a gun, just a machete. The snake paid the cat no mind but he sure was interested in me even before I had the machete lol. When my sons were young, my maternal instincts overcame my terror enough that I could kill a snake with whatever was at hand. When my sons became teenagers they insisted on killing them. They skinned them and tacked the skins up on their fort and cooked and ate the snake-meat. Anyhoo - the snake and I had a Mexican stand-off, I just couldn't make myself get close enough to give him a machete chop, he was obviously coiled and waiting on me to make a move. I did get the cat away from him though. Finally it slithered away, so then I got brave and chased it all the way to the woods and threw the machete at him, teh heh, that'll teach him to come in my yard and bother my cat! (Not)