His First Skin

Every day after Zane gets home, we like to take the dogs and Cally out for a hike on the trails behind our house. Zane packs Cally in the backpack and the 5 of us take a nice long walk up and down the hills. On our way home from this walk, just as Zane was about to cross over onto the sidewalk, he hears a rattle and jumps back to find a rattlesnake right by his feet. I, ofcourse, scream and run the other way. This was not the first rattlesnake that we have encountered on our hikes but it seems like we've been seeing them alot more lately. Zane decided that this one was too close for comfort and since it was near the sidewalk of a elementary school, he thought it would be best to kill it. So he grabbed a long stick and smashed his head several times. I stood about 30 feet away with Cally and the dogs. Once dead, we weren't sure what to do with it but I thought it could be cool to bring it home and skin it, so Zane picked it up with the stick and walked home with it hanging from the stick. Although clearly dead, the snake continued to move and try to shake it's rattle, it was really creepy. It did this for the next hour or so. Yuck!! When we got home, Zane skinned it and kept the rattle. It was his first, and he was pretty proud!