rattler!

Well, look what we found on our patio last week! A rattler! And guess who found it first? We were in the house and we hear from outside, "dad, there's a snake on the patio!" We looked outside and saw that it was a rattlesnake! We told Weredesh to quickly get inside and of course she walked right by the snake to come to the door. She started bawling her eyes out after we told her it was a rattlesnake and after she realized how freaked out we were. A few minutes later she says, "mom I have something to tell you, but I'm too scared..." I finally coaxed it out of her and come to find out that she TOUCHED it! She had no idea it was a rattler, and apparently touched it on its back. I can't believe she didn't get bit. The only reason we can think of as to why it didn't react was that it was a cooler day and it was on our patio trying to warm itself. It was in a really slow-moving state. You can kinda tell by looking at the picture how its body is flattened to the cement to absorb the heat. The snake was also about 2 ft. long and only had one rattle so it was a really young snake. We were SO glad she didn't learn the hard way. GEEZ!