OWYHEE COUNTY - Two dogs took charge - and one was bitten in the process - while protecting a child from a rattlesnake in Owyhee County.
Rodney Bacon and his family live out in sagebrush and grassland, near the Idaho and Nevada state line in Owyhee County. On Monday evening, Rodney, his 3-year-old daughter, Harper, and their German shepherd named Trek went to get mail out of his SUV.
Suddenly the dog began nudging Harper away from the vehicle.
"She wanted to get around towards the end of the SUV and he wouldn't let her and she kept saying "Stop pushing me! Trek stop pushing me!" Rodney said.
Rodney and Harper went back inside before they realized that Trek was trying to keep Harper away from a coiled rattlesnake.
That's when the family's other dog, a pitbull named Gracie, stepped in.
"A soon as I closed the door the other dog starts barking at it," Rodney said. "And that's when she was going after it, and the closer I got to the snake, the more aggressive she got. She ended up killing the snake by the time I got the shovel."
Gracie attacked and killed the snake, but got bit in the process and took off.
"I thought she ran off to die," Rodney said.
The family looked for Gracie, but couldn't find her.
"The following day I came back at lunchtime and there was another rattlesnake there and she was sitting there and she killed that one too," Rodney said. "And she had another bite on her leg. At that point I tied her up and i was like, 'I'm taking you to the vet right now.'
"She's doing just fine, aside from having a really big swollen head," Rodney said. "She can breathe, eat, drink, and she's wagging her tail as happy as ever."