I drove down to the water trough that the horse and roos drink from and began to fill it. I had emptied it out to apply some tar stuff around the plug as the water was disappearing so fast and thought there was a leak at the plug. The tar stuff was now dry so I turned the tap on full open. Kody always comes with me to check and fill the trough and she was quite excited as this was the area where the dingoes hide out. She raced away from the car and began to sniff and explore every interesting new odour that filled her nose. I looked up to see where she had run to and saw her shaking her head at a furious rate. She lifted her head up and threw a "wiggly stick" high into the air. I left the horse trough as fast as I could run and grabbing a "solid stick" ran to my very precious Kody. She had just found another 4' long snake and had chewed and flogged the stuffing out of it. I couldn't recognize the type of snake when I first saw it as Kody was about 35 meters away, all I could tell was it was black in colour. This colour snake turns the scares on at full strength. It could be a Taipan or an Eastern Brown. The Taipan is very dark brown to black and the Eastern Brown can be any colour from grey to golden brown to deep chocolate. Either one could kill Kody in five minutes or a man in twenty or even less. A man working not far from here was bitten by a Taipan and died within 5 minutes about 12 months ago.
By the time I reached Kody, the snake was nearly dead but the front half was still moving. I "sticked" it good and proper on the head with the stick I had picked up and then I was able to identify the snake. Thank God, it was a Yellow Bellied Tree Snake. These are non venomous but a bite can deliver a strong dose of bacteria that can cause gangrene to infect you or even Kody. Kody did find a "Brownie" about a year ago, it was near the garage but I was with her when she found it and it was easy to keep her at a distance with a simple command. She also found a "Whip Snake" which in venomous but not dangerous as being life threatening. It still puts me on edge though as I wouldn't be able to tell if Kody had been bitten. It would be a case of picking her up and rushing her to the vet 6 miles away for treatment and help. When Kody found the Whip Snake, she was walking with Cindy to the horse to feed it. She suddenly turned and flew about 20 meters to the snake that then became very excited. It's amazing how she knows they are there when she has to run 20 meters to them. Shepherds are not snake killing dogs, they don't have the extreme speed that some others do. Every time she tangles with a snake, she brings my heart to a lump in my throat as she has found about six of them in the past 3 years.
Kody