I was weeding early one morning, pulled up a hunk of weeks, and there was a baby diamondback in my hand. It was calm--no biting, hissing, twisting--so I was calm and put it back down. ("Oops, sorry," I said, though I know it doesn't speak Human languages at all.)

Baby rattlers have a bad reputation: they don't know to conserve venom, so they may deliver every bit they have into you (not a good thing). But it was early enough or some other smack upside the head of luck left me with nothing but a ...