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I feed and water livestock daily.
During the recent drought the tank was a mess of swirling algae so we were relying on the well pump and watering troughs to provide the water.
I opened the pump house door and went down on my knees to turn on the water and knew I was being watched.
When I looked up my eyes met two beady black ones belonging to the largest copperhead I have ever seen.
He was about two feet from me - coiled, head and tail both up.
I backed out of the pump house real slow.
Then, I had to go back to turn the water off. He was still there.
I left a note on the gate for the owner.
"Do not go into the pump house. Huge copperhead!"
The next morning she called me.
"I saw it," she said excitedly. "I took pictures and e-mailed them to my university prof. It's a copperhead all right."
"Did you kill it?" I asked.
"I'm not going to," she said. "It's such a beautiful specimen. I just can't. Besides, it will hibernate soon."
"It's a copperhead!" I said.
"But, it's beautiful."
"I have to water daily," I said. "I have to go into the pump house to do that. He's right by the water faucet."
"Oh come on," she said. "The bigger they are, the less venom they have. If he bites you, he won't hurt you."
I was floored and what I said can't be reprinted in a family newspaper.
So, for the next five days the snake and I had an uneasy truce when I needed to use the pump house.
Then, the guy who was shredding the bottom land happened to open the pump house door, see the snake, and he killed it.
He hung it on the fence to bring rain. I measured it - 31 inches long. Almost 2" in diameter at the biggest point.
I have to admit, I did not mourn its demise.
But it was a beautiful specimen.
Gracia Thibodeaux
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