Close Up And Personal With Nature

"The snake was striking in my face, it struck my glasses a couple of times ... I was slinging and slinging, he was striking and striking, and he just kept hanging on."

"The hawk was carrying my arm and the snake with it."

"I was screaming Please Jesus, just help me."

"I immediately began thrusting my arm, trying to knock the snake off. And as I was thrusting my arm, the snake just wrapped around my arm – and he started striking at my face."

"There was one point before the hawk came that I thought 'I can't get rid of this ... I'm going to die right here'."

"If you’ve ever cut yourself, think about 10 times that pain. It’s a pain you can’t describe. … It was beyond anything I had ever experienced." 

Peggy Jones, 64, Silsbee, Texas

 

"She was in hysterics and shock. I just rushed her to the truck and headed to the ER."

"It was probably three minutes before I actually understood what happened to her."

"She’s not sleeping well at all. When she finally goes to sleep, I’m usually having to wake her up because she’s dreaming."

"This is the toughest young lady I’ve ever met in my life. She doesn’t worry about pain. She thinks she can do everything, and she pretty much can do everything, so I have to try and keep her slowed down because she’s blow and go." 

Wendell Jones, 66

Peggy Jones stands at the 6-acre property where she was attacked July 25 by a hawk and snake. Photo, courtesy: Peggy Jones

Seated on a tractor mowing the lawn behind the house she shared with her husband with its six-acreage, while he too was on a mower at the front of the house, what could go wrong?, Suddenly a snake fell from above. An over-flying hawk clutching its prey, a 4-1/2-ft. snake, lost its grip and the snake fell directly on Peggy Jones, 64, curling itself in desperation to escape its fate, over her arm. The snake made no distinction between the hawk that had hunted it, and the woman whose arm it had fallen on, and began to strike Peggy's face.

 

The hawk, on the other hand, dismayed that its meal had suddenly disappeared swooped down with the intention of recovering it. The bird landed with its talons extended, and suddenly Mrs. Jones found herself caught between a terrified snake and a resolute hawk. As the hawk struggled to untangle the snake from her arm, at one point, Peggy Jones said, her arm was pulled skyward, the hawk attempting to fly off with its struggling meal still attached to her arm.

 

 

She was desperate to be freed from the two animals engaged in a struggle for existence; the predator to recover its meal, the snake to prolong its life. As the struggle between the three continued, the tractor left to its own devices, zig-zagged back and forth on the lawn. The woman screamed bloody murder hoping to be rescued from the predicament of fear and pain, but her husband was oblivious, since his own tractor made enough noise to obscure any other sound, even that of the traffic passing on the highway beyond.

With the completion of four fruitless swoops to recover its prey, the hawk finally realized success in retrieving the snake, leaving Peggy Jones bloodied and shaken, with numerous cuts, abrasions and bruises. She ran to her husband, and in her excited state was unable to fully explain to him what had just occurred. Covered with cuts and blood and already-emerging bruises he fully comprehended that his wife required instant medical attention.

He drove to a local hospital, where she was treated for puncture wounds, cuts and bruising and was prescribed antibiotics. The question of whether or not the snake was venomous was never resolved, however, and the pair watched carefully over the following days for signs of infection or reaction to potential poison. That concern also kept her from sleeping soundly as her mind worked on the dilemma of a possible infection caused by the unidentified snake species. 

Peggy Jones sits on one of two tractors used to groom her property.