Dogs and snakes...

Last weekend, Guy took us for a drive out of town in a place called the Arizona Strip. It is nothing but sand, sagebrush, and lots of dirt roads. It had rained the previous week, so Guy was dying to get out there and get some mud on his truck. We were only going to be a few hours, so I packed a cooler and the diaper bag. We headed out and drove through lots of mud and muck and the truck was looking pretty awesome with mud. We were just about to turn around and head home when Guy found a road that he had never been on. He doesn't have an Arizona map, so we just started driving on it not knowing where it was headed or how long it was. I wasn't worried because that is usually what Guy does. We drove, and drove, and drove some more. Finally Kayson was starving, so I fed him while Guy and the dogs went exploring around. They spotted an old cow corral that they wanted to drive to, so I strapped Kayson back into his seat and away we went to see the corral. We got out and were walking around when Guy stopped in his tracks and said that he could hear a rattlesnake. I ran to the truck as fast as I could because I didn't want to be near a rattler if it really was near us. As I ran to the truck, I hollered for the dogs to get in the truck with me. They followed and I helped them in, and grabbed for Guy's gun and the camera. Guy found the snake, and sure enough, it was a rattlesnake. He has been wanting to find one so that he could have the rattles. While he was shooting the snake and getting the rattles, I was putting Kayson's bink back in his mouth back at the truck. I noticed that dallie had some blood around her eye and that it was swollen up. I realized that she had been bitten by the snake. I was in immediate panic mode. Guy called the vet to see what we should do...he said get her to the emergency vet clinic as fast as we could. Well...that fastest we could ended up being 2 hours. The road was rough, it was slow going, and I had dallie wrapped up in my jacket on my lap. It seemed like forever and I really thought she wasn't going to make it. We got to the clinic and the vet was waitng for us there. He checked her over and after all was said and done, he said that she was the luckiest dog to be alive. The snake has just barely grazed her eyelid with its one fang. Her body had fought off the venom really good. She was sent home with some antibiotics.
The picture is that night when we brought her home. We wrapped her up in her fav blanket and she stayed there for a few days of resting. The swelling went away the next day and she is doing so good. I can't believe that she was bitten by a rattlesnake and lived to tell the story.