Franzi Encounters a Gopher Snake

Franzi squaring off with a gopher snake

All of the dachshunds in my pack have distinct personalities. Rommel is a retriever and cares for nothing but chasing a ball.

Montgomery is a lover. He’s more than happy to sit on your lap all day and let you pet him.

Hank is a guard dog. Most of the time he’s out with the German Shepherds patrolling the fence, barking menacingly when necessary.

Hercules is still a baby, so he’s just a ball of energy, zooming from one place to the next and eating too many shoes.

Franzi is our only girl and a spectacular huntress. Gophers, ground squirrels, mice, – if it burrows, its not safe once she’s got the scent.

Franzi’s hunting instincts extend to other creatures too, though not with the gusto of rodents. We’ve caught her challenging skunks (only once), opossums, frogs, lizards, and cats. We even caught her once going nose-to-nose with a rattlesnake! (My husband removed the snake before one of them got hurt.)

So, the other day, it was no surprise when we heard Franzi’s short, rapid hunting bark coming from the lower yard.

The bark wasn’t her “digging hunt” bark which is a short bark followed by growling and the sound of dirt flying. Instead, it was the repeated short, clipped bark she gives when she’s not quite sure how dangerous the thing she’s challenging is.

So, I followed the sound of her voice to find her near the chicken coop facing off against a large (almost 5 feet!) gopher snake.

Gopher snakes are harmless (unless you’re a gopher), but if they get into the chicken coop, they can eat the eggs, which as you might guess, upsets the chickens – and me.

The snake was doing its best rattlesnake imitation, puffing up and shaking its tail in some leaves rattler style, but Franzi wasn’t buying it. She was, however, maintaining a safe distance just in case.

I called my husband and he came down, grabbed the snake, and relocated it to an area safely away from the chicken coop and our dachshund huntress.

Then I gave Franzi a piece of bacon for being such an alert dog.

Good girl Franzi!