Murphy the Super Alert Dog

[Holly_go_lighlty]

This is the second time in less than a month that our little Murphy has alerted us to something dangerous in our yard.

The first time he was doing the high screechy barking (ya'll know the one) and it alerted his Dad (thank God I was out of town) to a 4 foot long cotton mouth (water moccasin for the Yankees). He never went out of his doggy door that day for some reason!

Then tonight (just after sunset) he was hanging around the aloe plant. We figured he was chasing chameleons or bugs. He was out there for a long time, so I wandered out to investigate and see if he had the aloe dug up. There in the corner, under the air conditioner was a slithering snake! I took off for the house, yelling SNAKE, SNAKE. (tales will be told that I was crying, but I was not!). I announced my best guess of a little black snake (it was dusk). Got the flashlight and my little black snake idea quickly went up in smoke (after herding a crazy cairn inside and a quick google image search). It was a coral snake!

We were able to rid the yard of the slithering beast and all is well again.

The HERO!

The Prey

[lacy]

What a good little Murphy!

I am not particularly scared of snakes but if I saw that in my yard...I may have been crying too!

[bradl]

Ye gods. I grew up in Massachusetts and one time I found a snake in the local brook and thought "neat - how colorful!" Went home to look up what it was and nearly fainted when I at first mistakenly thought I'd found a Coral snake. Murphy would be my hero, too.

[DawnandTuk-tuk]

Oh my god! That is scary! Good for Murphy! I've been proud of Tuk for alerting us to the presence of a couple strange things in our backyard, we thought he found a gila monster a couple weeks ago (thank goodness no since they are poisonous), and once a parrot which had gotten lost. I certainly hope he never finds a snake! I will be crying for sure, we more commonly have rattlers out here and I will freak out if that ever happens! I don't care for snakes, lizards I can handle, not snakes, eek!

[mrseggcup]

EEEEEEEEEKK!!!!!!

Alpha B here.

Where the heck do you live, for pete's sake? So I can stay away from there.

Sheesh!

Alpha B

[Brody]

Snakes?!? I would freak out!!

Glad Murphy was there to save the day!!

[kintra]

Yay Murphy!

I'm one of those people who can only look at snakes through glass...but when its in my yard, I get weirded out. Thank goodness we typically only had gardner snakes in my yard and Zach is great with backing them into a corner until my dad will go get them.

[Shazza]

Yikes!

Good going Murphy, I would have fainted! lol

[amity]

I

[sheila and Misty]

scarey-thankfull we only get harmless garter brown or green snakes here-and the dogs will try to catch them-guess the poisonous one emit an odor the dogs detect as danger. our only concerns are encounters with racoons ground hogs and skunks. They will only attack if cornered -and because I have a fenced in yard -sometimes they get cornered. llucky you werent laying out getting a tan you may have woke up with a snake on your belly.

[kjwarnold]

I HATE snakes! I would have been running and screaming, too. We have them here in Missouri and it always bothers me to see them swimming in the lake when the dogs are swimming. Or when I'm swimming! They're usually just harmless water snakes, but we do have poisonous ones -- YUCK! My Grandpa used to have an English Setter that would kill snakes. She never got bit and would grab them and shake them to pieces. Oh, man...wish I hadn't looked at that picture. EEEWWWW!

Good for Murphy!

[Kathryn]

Well, that scared the beejeebers out of me early in the morning. One of the best reasons for urban living: in 30 years in my city yard, I have only seen two garter snakes. My worries focus on the raccoons...and at least they are fuzzy, if just as deadly.

Yuk.

[Sandi16]

Way to go Murphy!!

I hate snakes. I don't care if most are harmless. Once, we visited my husband's aunt out in the country in Indiana. When we got there, they were all looking at a big snake sunning in her tree. It was the longest wild snake I had ever seen. We went inside and later went to get gas. When my husband checked the oil, he opened the hood to see that big snake on our engine!!

[Holly_go_lighlty]

We live in the middle part of Florida, about 60 miles north of Tampa, but the area we are currently living in very swampy and marshy. I'm a city girl at heart (the biggest thing we had to worry about was the occasional pigeon or pimp...LOL). Moving here has been a huge adjustment.

We have tons of birds of prey, gators in the canals, dolphins in the canals, manatees in the canals. I've seen a bobcat twice and have heard rumor of razorback pigs in the area. My best friend lives close to Tampa and she jokes with me that I better watch out because one day I'm going to come outside to get in my Wrangler and see the bobcat curled up on the front seat sleeping in the sun!

People also have said there are diamondback and pygmy rattlesnakes (I'll answer Dawn in a second). Very rural and very different.

Murphy is definitely our little hero - three weeks shy of his first birthday! My little baby is growing up!

[mjones]

I was reading this thread yesterday thinking thank God we don't have anything dangerous like this where I live. Then I got a phone call from a friend who lives on 8 acres about a mile from me and she said she saw a black bear in her yard yesterday morning. Great! Our yard is fenced with 5 ft chain link, but it still makes me nervous.

[Idaho Cairns]

I'm a Yankee and that ain't no cottonmouth! When you see a real cottonmouth you see a jet black, thick as a sausage, mean critter and you don't often find them around the house--they like logs and bogs. That be a copperhead! Dangerous enough but not a cottonmouth.

[Holly_go_lighlty]

I'm a Yankee and that ain't no cottonmouth! When you see a real cottonmouth you see a jet black, thick as a sausage, mean critter and you don't often find them around the house--they like logs and bogs. That be a copperhead! Dangerous enough but not a cottonmouth.

It's actually a coral snake...

I also live in a swampy area, so cottonmouths are actually quite prevalent.

[Puddlesmama]

Oh my gosh. How scary! I would have cried, peed my pants and ran for the hills. Your brave.

Gooooo Murphy!!

[angelscairns]

WOW - A super hero and super handsome to boot!! Good job Murphy! Great pic!

I have to admit chuckling at some of the comments and fears of wildlife. I've lived in the country and I now live in the city and I'll take my chances with wildlife over the crazies in the city any day.

[tk223]

I grew up about 100 miles north of Tampa, in Central Florida...critters, critters, critters galore-snakes (poisonous, non-poisonous & pythons), gators, spiders, wild pigs, wild cats, giant iguanas, etc....I actually miss it! keep an eye out for those gators....and there are pygmy rattlesnakes in your area!