I kept the rattlesnake overnight, in the snake bin, with several large rocks on the lid. Since I caught him in the afternoon, I didn’t want to risk releasing him with so little time to find shelter before nightfall. Plus, I was pretty sure I could catch him a mouse overnight and sure enough, I did.

Breakfast!

As soon as I dropped the dead mouse in the bin, the snake pounced on it and ate it! Too cool. No wonder he was so grumpy yesterday. He probably just woke up from a long winter’s nap and he was HUNGRY!

After breakfast, I drove him down the road aways from my place, away from anybody’s place and released him near some rocks, where I hope he’ll find a good enough home that he won’t come back to mine.

New home! Notice the slightly blurred tail -- he's still rattling at me, even after I took such good care of him! I thought this would be my last look...

But he kept his eyes on me until I walked away. That's a level of interspecies awareness I don't expect from a snake. He's a feisty one!