Rattlesnake vs. Pomeranian. This Badger Canyon tale ends better than you think

A Pomeranian puppy saved its Badger Canyon owner from being bit by a young rattlesnake on her back porch.

Roxann Johanson said she was heading outside to feed the horses Wednesday night on her property near the end of Dallas Road.

When she opened the door to her porch, her 7-month-old pup Tater jumped out in front of her, as he usually does.

But before she could step out the door, Tater spun around and looked back.

“I could tell by just watching him, he was saying something was just not right,” Johanson said.

That’s when she saw it — a rattlesnake.

Johanson described the snake as small- to average-sized, but its rattle was too small to make noise. She thought it might be young.

“I’d’a stepped right on him,” Johanson said.

She reached inside her house for a walking stick as the snake went to a corner of the porch with Tater still facing it.

Johanson said she whacked the snake with a stick to kill it.

She doesn’t normally do that, but “there was a moment there that the snake was between me and my dog, and that wasn’t happening,” she said.

Johanson’s son tossed the snake carcass away after Johanson got a photo. She said she was glad right then for her brave puppy — all 4.5 pounds of him.

This story was originally published July 20, 2018 at 6:43 PM.