I once lived in a house in Arkansas. Our daughter was 4 years old at the time. When we moved in we were warned to watch for Copperheads becuase the previous tenants had also had a 4 year old and she had been bitten in the foot while playing in the back yard and was quite ill, but lived. Venomous or not, snakes are not as highly predictible as one might think. One day several years ago my wife and I were fishing in a local reclaimed strip mining pit when we had the strangest (and later, funniest) things happen I have ever witnessed. I was on one side of the pit fishing while my wife was on the other side. She is and was totally a sunbather over fishing person, so as usual, we went at about 2:30, the hottest and worst time of day for fishing. She had her cooler and lawn chaise and was enjoying the day. I was bored stiff since I was having no luck at all fishing. A couple of water snakes swam slowly across the pit in front of me. As usual, they had their head up flicking the air. I had always been told that was how they smell, but don't know if true. Since we had had a few beers, I was acting a dope and started flipping my tongue back at one. Here come de funny and strange part .. he looked at me, got mad, and swam to shore trying to attack me .. he fully intended to lay a ton of whupass on me ... out of the water and onto the shore he came whilst I backed up as far as I could go. My life was peeing her pants laughing. I had to climb onto a lawn chair to escape, and he was coming up there too. I finally managed to hook him with the lure I was using so I could take him back to the water and release him, which I did. Since he was still pissed, I threw him about 10 ft out and thought that was it ... but he did not ... here he came again, full speed ahead ... charges and runs me back to my chair again. I repeat the process while my wife absolutely falls off her chaise laughing .. I won't go on, but he was like the Energizer bunny .. he'd charge and I would run and then capture. I have no idea why he finally gave up or why he got so mad to begin with. That is the only time I have ever been chased by a snake and he was a potential Olympic candidate. He was just a 2 or 3 foot long harmless water snake who decided he was not taking any of my sh@t. Looking back, it was totally hilarious that such a little thing could be so feisty and indeed make me run when I KNEW he was not venomuos. I would absolutely have hated to have killed him, but if he had been doing that to my 3 year old daughter, he would have been deader than dead now.
It is pretty easy to take the high road when it is not your 3 year old and you don't actually have to DO something fast and ask questions later. Had I been you, I would not have hesitated killing him for a second. Glad it all worked out.
'd chargethanda four year old daughyter at the time.
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