Friday, September 26, 2008

Working in the Bayou

Last weekend Mr. Cowboy was working in Cameron, Louisiana. The Cameron Hospital needed some electrical work. The hospital has some buildings that are modular buildings. Those buildings are up on piers. When Hurricane Ike came through and surged water through Cameron, the Hospital got flooded. The water went up under the buildings and shorted out a lot of the wires. Mr. Cowboy had hooked up a generator to the hospital but it kept shorting out and tripping a breaker. So, Mr. Cowboy got called out on Sunday to go and check out the problem. Sure enough there were a lot of messed up wires under those modular buildings. That meant that Mr. Cowboy got to crawl in the Louisiana mud, up under those buildings. While Mr. Cowboy was under there he and his apprentice were greeted with this.
This is a Cottonmouth Water Moccasin. It was so nice to visit my dear husband. Theses snakes are poisonous. Mr. Cowboy's apprentice said that he never has seen Mr. Cowboy crawl so fast out from under a trailer before. I told Mr. Cowboy, "Well if it bit you at least you were at a hospital, right?" I do not think that he thought I was funny. I think I would be moving pretty quickly too. Then not 15 minutes later this one fell out of the bottom of the trailer. This was the smaller Cottonmouth Water Moccasin. I am not sure that I would qualify that as a small snake. At this point I would have had enough wild life. I might have called it a day. No more wild life for me. And there would have been no way you could have gotten me to crawl back under that trailer/hospital. But Mr. Cowboy is brave. And he wanted to get the job done. So, he went back under that hospital and started pulling more wire. But not without another visitor. Mr. Cowboy said that she came crawling under the trailer right behind him. At this point I think I would have called my boss and told him that I quit. But not Mr. Cowboy, he called animal control. The man came armed and ready. First he caught this alligator. Just look how muddy it is there. Yuck.Here she is doing her death roll. The animal control guy then jumped on her. He said she was about 7 feet long. Then he grabbed her head and tapped her mouth shut. Oh my goodness!! This is like the crocodile hunter up close and personal. I can not believe it. And this big Momma wasn't the last alligator to visit them. There was one more smaller one that just walked by. My goodness. Just walked by? I do not think I could be that casual if an alligator was "just walking by". Mr. Cowboy said that one was only about a 4 foot alligator. The animal control man told Mr. Cowboy that when Hurricane Ike came through it destroyed all of the alligators' nests. Now all the alligators are pushed out of their nests and trying to fine food. Well, I would feel a lot better if the alligators would over look my skinny husband and find themselves some fat snakes or something.

While driving home that night Mr. Cowboy was talking to me on the phone. He was telling his apprentice to look out the window at all the red eyes. He was telling him that all those red eyes were the alligators. Then he said, "Oh Crap!! I just ran over an alligator!!" I didn't believe him and told him that he probably should go so he didn't hit any more wildlife. Two days after all this Mr. Cowboy was looking at his truck because something wasn't running right and you will never guess what he found up under the hood.
Oh yeah, that would be an alligator jaw. The top part. Complete with teeth. And with guts. The Cowpokes were all over this alligator jaw. They think their Dad is so very cool. Their Dad ran over an alligator. Big Cowpoke had to have his picture taken with the jaw. Mr. Cowboy even extracted some teeth so the boys could have them, to keep.
I liked the tiny alligator nostrils. Poor alligator. What a way to go. I do hope that the alligators can rebuild their nests and move back into the wild. I really did not realize we had so many alligators down here. I will have to be a bit more careful walking around the ditches. And now Mr. Cowboy's story of how Bear might have gotten eaten by an alligator is not so far fetched. I am glad Mr. Cowboy is done risking his life, and limbs in Cameron.

19 comments:

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

What a fascinating story! I wonder if Disaster Preparedness includes any thought of how to deal with displaced animals. Mr. Cowboy deserves a big, fat raise!

TjandMark/AKA PearlandHawkeye said...

First the Wades over at galloping grace creep me out and now this. YIKES! There is no way, no how I would have done what your hubby did. You don't call him MISTER Cowboy for nothing. -tj

kdwhorses said...

OH MY! I have heard they are having problems with the snakes in the Beaumont and Houston area as well! yikes!

kdwhorses said...

Oh just think you got you some cool show and tell! LOL!

Train Wreck said...

TIME for a NEW occupation! NO WAY!! I have seen Lonesome Dove!! Water moccasins eeehh! (shudder!) I am glad he didn't get bite by any of those scaly creatures!!

Cactus Jack Splash said...

My gosh, what a nightmare-never thought being an electrician could be that dangerous. Glad he is safe.

Izzy said...

Life happens and you always seem to get pictures! Bravo. Even though you don't have one of all those red eyes I fear that that's the part I will remember most. Pretty scary!!! Great post.

Amanda said...

Ahhh, Life in my home state of Louisiana! How I miss it!

Melanie said...

I grew up in Southern ILL, and parts of MO, and we also had cotton mouths, but no alligators. My kids would totally LOVE that alligator jaw too!!!

I just read the post below about your hubby and Ozzie...of course he was perfect for him...lol!!! Maybe he got all of his sillies out with you!

Wendy said...

I know you've been here for quite a few years now but you've finally been initiated!!!! lol To officially become a Cajun's wife you have to have had him almost killed by an alligator and/or cotton mouth! Haha!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Yikes!! I can handle rattlesnakes, but for some reason water moccasins have always freaked me out. I think it was because of the storied I heard about water skiing accidents when I lived in Alabama. And then Chris sent me a whole bunch of pictures of the oil rigs after Katrina. They were covered in water displaced water moccasins. Yuck!!

Poor Bear-I don't want to think about him getting eaten by an alligator. That would be an awful way to go.

Amanda said...

You didn't tell me about the snakes!! Yikes. Aren't you so glad that you've trained your husband in the art of dramatic photo taking? Good thing, otherwise we wouldn't have had such great imagery to go with the story! the chopped up bloody snakes are the best!

Plowing and Sowing said...

I have been in Southeast Texas, and the talk is the amount of aligators and snakes. Everyone is saying that they are trying to get away from the salt water. No matter the reason, I agree, they need to head back to where they came from.

Karen said...

GAH!!! That's just not right. At all.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

I just don't know what to say.

Seems everyone's got creept critters to post about right now.
I about fainted seeing GGYR blog's bull snake inside the horse helmet and then just about peed my pants seeing the huge tarantula and rattlesnake over at the 7MSN blog.

But I'm telling you, this blog post wins over 'em all.

*shudder*


~Lisa

Danielle Michelle said...

LOL - That so reminds me of the first time I was visiting family down there and was going swimming. They were like, "make sure you check for critters!" and I was like, "huh?"

"oh, and don't just 'look' in the pool, check the gutters real good and make sure there's nothing in the plants or stuck in the drain"

I never did go swimming. I think it was on that same trip we came home from the mall and there was a 'gator on the front porch.

I think they want to reclaim their territory!

The Caple Crew said...

i love how even though those things are all big and scary they still take the time to stop and take pictures!

Aimée said...

Oh my gosh! I couldn't handle any of that! I get freaked out by tiny spiders let alone alligators and poisonous snakes. That is INSANE. I am glad you are all still alive :)

The Wades said...

OH MY GOODNESS!!! What a crazy day. I'm going to have to show this post to my eight year old. He's going to be so jealous of Mr. Cowboy's wild adventures!

I think crawling up under a hospital is scary enough, but to throw alligators and poisonous snakes in the mix...

I sure hope they're paying him enough for all that craziness!