A Southern California woman was hospitalized after a rattlesnake bite, only for the same snake to return and strike her cat while she remained in recovery.
The victim, whose name has not been released, was cleaning up her cat’s toys in the backyard of her Los Angeles County home last week when the aggressive serpent emerged and bit her on the index finger. One of her neighbors rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was administered a dose of anti-venom.
“She couldn’t feel her legs anymore. Her entire face felt numb, she was having a hard time swallowing and her throat was kind of, like, starting to close up,” the woman’s sister, Souny, said.
A day later, while the woman was still recovering in the hospital, the rattlesnake returned and bit her pet cat named Magic. The back-to-back attacks on the same property prompted a call to a local snake removal expert.
Cary Quashen of the Snake School in Santa Clarita was called to the scene to capture and remove the dangerous reptile. The experienced handler faced a challenging search before locating the elusive snake.
“I drove over there, but it wasn’t where they thought it was. About an hour and a half later, I found it,” Quashen told the news outlet.
Quashen warned that families with kids and pets should be extra cautious amid rising temperatures across Southern California, as rattlesnakes are more likely to make their way into places like backyards to escape the heat.
The incident comes amid a string of recent rattlesnake encounters in the region. Earlier this month, a Calabasas family discovered a rattlesnake lurking in their backyard right where their children played. Hugo Will, a Los Angeles-based cinematographer, shared a video of the chilling discovery in his yard, showing the rattlesnake hiding among his children’s scattered toys.
The Calabasas discovery highlighted how the reptiles are increasingly turning up in residential spaces where children and pets are at risk.
Earlier this year in May, a Northern California hospital ran out of anti-venom in a desperate attempt to save the life of a father of three bitten twice by a deadly rattlesnake. Christopher Howarth from Idaho was visiting his parents’ home in Lake Oroville in May when he ventured into their backyard to check a leaking pipeline and stepped on what he thought was a plant, but it was a rattlesnake.
The woman’s current condition and Magic’s status following the second attack have not been publicly disclosed.
