Thread:RabbitofRandomness/@comment-33132044-20120518054952

So I was eating dinner a my little brother opened the door to go outside and came back in because my sister said she saw a sunspider(or windscorpion, depending on what you want to call it, because it is neither a spider or a scorpion) and he was going to get something to squish it with. Then, when he opened the door again and started to go back out, he realized there was a small rattlesnake right in front of it! It didn't even rattle or anything, so he wouldn't have known it was there. He shut the door quickly and called our parents. Then we (my brother, me and dad) went out the opposite door and grabbed a shovel and beheaded it. Luckily none of us were bitten.

It was a young mojave about a foot and a half long. It had gone through about four sheddings (at least without breaking a rattle) and the tail was kinda funny like it might be shedding again soon. Tonight I learned that rattlesnakes can strike without being coiled up, and that the body and head of a dead snake still move after they are severed, so be careful because you could still end up getting venom in you (I already knew this but it was the first time I watched it moving). 