saved by my pup

I came within inches of stepping on one yesterday.  I was walking on the side of the road and the snake was inches from my path.  My dog alerted me by spotting it first and letting out a quick growl.  At a glance the diamond pattern led me to think he was a rattler but he just had a regular snake tail.  I think he was a California Gopher Snake.  I also saw he was slowly retreating into the brush because he looked to have been seriously injured on his mid-section.  He was about 3 to 4 ft long.  Thanks to my pup for his alertness by saving me from stepping on a snake. 

All that remains

of a cattle ranch from years gone by.

R.U.S.'s

Rodents of Unusual Size.  A bit smaller than a baseball.

stone house

Stone house, how old are you?

funny coyote

A few days ago I had my windows open on a pleasant afternoon.  I heard a coyote start barking and howling.  After a few minutes of this coyote continuously barking it peaked my interest enough to step outside onto my patio with my binoculars to see if I could spot its location.  By narrowing him down by sound I located him to be very roughly a half mile away - across undeveloped land.  He was standing on a berm howling.  He was far enough away that I could watch him bark (through the binoculars) and then a second later I would hear the bark.  Well, I was starting to wonder why he was just standing there making all this noise for a long period of time and then I saw for myself why he was barking. I watched two dogs run towards his direction, and then run past him on a straight course.  At one point they only looked to be a few feet away from him.  The dogs continued across the hills on their straight path.  It was a large black female who looked like a recent mother and a brown male pitbull type dog.  The coyote had been making all this noise because they were crossing his territory and he was powerless to do anything.  They were larger and better fed, and there was two of them.  He was barking to drive them off but it did absolutely no good to deter them.  At the moment they passed him, I noted that he did nothing except continue sitting and barking.  He didn't even stand on all fours.  After the two dogs ran off I looked back at the coyote who was still barking and I did a loud whistle at him.  He stopped barking, turned his head and looked in my direction.  He then resumed barking.  I whistled again, and again he stopped and then resumed barking.  After a few more back and forths between us I went back in the house and he piped down.