It Took Me Fifty Years...But I Finally Saw One

 My family moved to Farmington, Utah in 1970.

I was Four.

There's been only a few years when I did not live on this street or on this mountain. Living on a mountain means you get to interact--occasionally--with wildlife. And of all the wild creatures prancing, swimming, crawling, flying, and buzzing on this mountain, there's one thing that slithers that I hadn't seen...

A rattlesnake.

Until last week.

I know rattlers live in the mountains. You just have to be careful when hiking--from what I understand, they don't like people so they'd be happy if people just left them alone. Fine with me. I did a lot more hiking on the mountain as a kid, but in all the time I've lived here, I never saw one.

Last week there was a commotion in our backyard. My daughter came in from work and said they caught a rattlesnake next door. I had to see it. A Farmington City police officer already had the situation cleared. The snake was caged. I took out my phone and started taking pictures.

"You want a better picture?" the officer asked.

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah...I can take the top off."

"No thanks," I said.

Today, my friend posted a picture of him and his wife that he took while the two of them were hiking on the mountain. He said they saw some rattlers. Maybe, if I had been more fortunate (or unfortunate some might say...) I would have seen this beautiful animal sooner. Then again, a half a century is okay by me.

As long as it's caged.