Tommy and the Cottonmouth

(This is the first page of my essay in this issue. You will need to find the book to see how it ends.)

 Once you’ve had a wonderful dog, a life
without one is a life diminished.
~Dean Koontz

     When I saw that little brown face and yellow eyes at the shelter, I knew that puppy was going to be mine. I adopted Tommy soon after my husband and I moved to Florida. He was never a cuddly pup but always curious, always interested in the world around him.

Before he was a year old, he had decided his job in life was to be our protector. He took his job very seriously. My fat, round puppy grew into ninety pounds of solid muscle with long strong legs, a wide head, and a powerful chest.

At home with us, and our close friends, he was funny, happy, and playful. But when strangers came to the door, he was vigilant in his duties as sheriff. Our loving, happy dog could become menacing.

I always walked him on a leash. We lived across the street from a conservation area with a mowed, grassy strip near the street. We often saw a wide variety of wild animals, from tortoises and rabbits to predators, like alligators. When walking there, the wild animals would see us, we would see them; we left them alone; they left us alone.

Venomous cottonmouth snakes hunted in the grassy area every day. Cottonmouths were three feet long with reddish-brown, thick bodies, smaller heads, and tapered tails. When threatened, a cottonmouth will coil and open its mouth wide, showing the cottony white interior, hence the name. Tommy and I saw the snakes often enough that I could recognize their markings. They would lift their heads above the grass to see what was going on and then go back to their hunting. It was as if they thought, Oh, it’s you. They didn’t leave, and we didn’t either. I had heard cottonmouths are fierce and aggressive, but these never were — at least not to us.

One summer day Tommy and I were enjoying a walk. He was on a long leash. He suddenly came upon an adult cottonmouth that was dark brown with very dark markings. It wasn’t one of our regulars. Before I could get him away, the dog and snake were face to face. I froze. I didn’t want to scare the snake by making Tommy move quickly. It might bite him, and he might not survive. I kept thinking, No sudden moves, no sudden moves. At least the snake wasn’t coiled. Very, very slowly I put more slack in the leash so my dog could move quickly if needed.