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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Essential Snake Book

Having come here, we were aware that there are a large variety of snakes. I am not a particular fan, but with the sunshine, beaches and food, must come some balance, so snakes and spiders are just part of the trade off. While we had a book on the animals of Thailand, the section on snakes contains about 16 photographs. I have seen about 4 now, and none of them were in the book. I have also tried to look them up on the internet, but the phrase long, brown snake Thailand is not a very well defined search parameter it seems.

In a previous posting I recalled Grace and her snake chasing (What was that?). We have been very careful about the dogs and snakes as we have heard,  about dogs being bitten and dying instantly. Clive even went on-line and researched how to treat a snake bite in the event he ever had to deal with it. For those not caught up to the current practices, or you heard one too many jokes about a snake bite and sucking out the poison.
You should know that this is NOT the way to deal with snake bites. So please do not be carrying a pen knife to make a slit and suck. It has the potential to pass the venom to you as well as the person you were trying to help.

We have had company here for the past week and it seems we have adjusted fairly well to the heat. They however having just arrived from the winter in Canada, need their air conditioning. This includes in the car, which is something I have not been too used to since we moved here, as we have passed on owning a car. Somehow on the Thunderbirds, air conditioning is never needed as the ocean breeze seems to work well enough. So as a result I have come down with a head cold. In his consideration, he has been letting me sleep in and taking the dogs for their morning walks alone. Today he went back out to the coconut grove and his biggest fears were realized as Grace caught site of a large snake and gave chase, only to be bitten in the nose. Byron made the rush to the scene to have the same snake rear it's upper body up and appear to be in a strike mode. Luckily Byron decided that Clive yelling for him to stay where he was, was perhaps a prudent thing to do, as Grace had yelped and blood was streaming out her nose. The snake made a dash to safety in the brush with Grace in pursuit again, only to be intercepted by Clive.

He cut the outing short and miraculously they all obeyed and made their way back home. We cleaned Grace up and she seemed to be no worse for the wear. But we kept an eye on her and I made a trip to buy the book I have been looking at for months and somehow did not think it prudent to spend the money for. We scoured the pages to determine what had bitten her. Unlike the big book, this one had page, after page, after page, of the snakes we would find here in southern Thailand. It also has a section devoted specifically to treating snake bites.

Grace has been loving the attention and checking. She feels that each examination deserves a treat. But tonight Clive is in bed asleep, no doubt going to be having dreams about snakes again. Grace wil be looking for her breakfast and I will be studying the snake book.

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