08.15.08 - Lyre Snake (Western or Mexican)

I went to sit down the other day and just as I was about to sit, I looked at the chair and noticed a snake poking out from under the seat cushion. I was a bit conflicted about it, but I ended up having to kill it because I thought it was a baby rattlesnake and most people around here are pretty adamant that rattlers be killed if they are near the house. I thought it was a rattlesnake without any rattles because it had slitted pupils, however it didn't look like a rattlesnake at first glance, in fact it looked more like a corn snake to me. But once I saw the vertical slit pupils I knew it was most likely venomous, and the #1 most common venomous snake around here is the Western Diamondback. After that, the Mojave rattler is the second most common rattler around and its neurotoxin is about 10x worse than most rattlers. But that's not what I killed, apparently Lyre snakes are mildly venomous, but probably not harful to humans. Unfortunately I did not know this at the time. If he had been minding his own business somewhere else, I would have left him alone, but finding one under the cushion of the chair I was about to sit on was a little more than I could handle. He had to die. Here is documentation of the gruesome affair. In the future, if I find any actual rattlesnakes, I hope to be albe to relocate them rather than killing them. I'm not really worried about me or my g-friend getting bitten so much as my dogs. I am a major snake lover and it really felt wrong to kill one.