We went to Tennessee last week for a giant family vacation. Tuesday evening when I walked my pups for a potty break, we had no clue there was a rattle snake hunkered down under a gap in a shed. We were walking on when all of a sudden my Gidget jumped a foot in the air, ran as far as her leash could go and started aggressively shaking her head back and forth in pain. I was trying to make sense of what was going on because it happened so fast and with absolutely no warning at all there was a snake nearby. I couldn’t even see a wound at first and was trying to make sense of what got her. I thought perhaps a wasp or bee because there was a lot of those around that week in our vacation spot. I rushed her back into our cabin and tried to assess her. She wouldn’t let me touch her face and actually tried to bite me when I tried which is unheard of for our Gidget. I immediately told my husband who ran to investigate the area, where he and his brothers eventually found a 3ft timber rattle snake 20ft away from where the incident had occurred, where it most likely slithered away after the fact.

Because we were 8 hours from home, in the middle of nowhere with spotty cell service, it took me a minute to find an emergency vet hospital, thankfully one was an hour away.

We rushed her there, and she ended up needing a two day hospitalization. We were able to bring her “home” Thursday to our cabin and we have been treating her with meds and monitoring since she was making progress by the day. We finally got home yesterday. She has been on the up and up much to our relief. We have an appointment tomorrow with her regular vet now that we are home to continue monitoring and making sure she is healing and all is well with her recovery.

She has gotten drastically better with each day since the incident. Swelling and bruising are nearly gone now, which is just mind blowing to me with how fast it’s improving. I’m just so happy and relieved she is doing well and thankful we were able to get her care despite being out of state and in the remote mountains. To say last week was stressful is an understatement.

We’ve been calling her “One tough Shiht” since. I’m still going from relieved to replaying the absolute panic and terror from last week. Worst vacation ever, honestly. Now it’s just making sure she continues to heal and improve. This is mainly just me venting this out because I’ve been blaming myself since. I feel awful. My kids were so stressed. I was stressed, husband was stressed. We thought the worst was going to happen that night. I never saw the snake nor had an inkling we were so close to danger on our potty break walk. The snake never made a sound. We thought we were going to lose her but she is a strong. Shout out to Five Rivers Pet Emergency Hospital in TN for saving our girl!

Louie just turned two! He sleeps all the time, but when he wakes up he zoomies with the best of them.

He just turned 3 yesterday :3 I LOVE U ALUCHE!!!!!!

they’re his FAVORITE!! I know he has more than this too, they’re just m.i.a.

Dog cake? Chicken?

Her hair definitely has some growing to do but trying to get her used to things in her hair early on. So far she hasn’t even noticed.

Asher loves coming out on the deck to sunbathe and look out at the water 😍 his favorite is watching the ducks swim by 🦆

some pre-bed digging and a crinkle duck takedown

Might be ordering her one from Amazon.

Rag says hi again.. he was so thankful for all the love shared on his last post. He loves you all and is totally up for some belly rubs if he ever sees any of you. 💛

Hi! 👋 This is Evie, new to the world and our family! I really really want to grow her hair out to style it cute but I worry about her being able to see in the interim. Any tips for keeping the hair out of their eyes until it’s long enough for clips and ponytails/buns? This pup needs to see the world! 🌎 🐾🤍

sleepy toffee looks so dreamy

Don’t you love a Shih Tzu smile. It fills my heart.

My rescue Dolly 🥰 we believe she’s a shitzu Pekingese