...sounds like TX hill country, and you need a snake killin dog. Used to have a standard doxy that hunted snakes like they were soup bones. He got bit on occasion, but he got them without getting bit far more often. He had a few dealings with the vet, but he lived and built up immunity and would just swell up some then be fine. Killed a LOT of snakes.
If you live in rural Rattler country, cats are good to have around your house. That's why a lot of farmers and ranchers keep cats around.
When I was 11 or 12 we lived just outside of a small Texas coastal town. One day a big yellow tom cat followed me home from school. We fed him and he took up residence. We lived out on the salt grass prairie which is usually full of rattle snakes. Rats and rabbits love salt grass and the snakes love rats and rabbits. One morning as we were going out the side door leading to the car port, there on the porch was a 3 foot rattler dead. We didn't know how it got there, but there he was. Then a few days later there was another dead rattler on that same little porch. This occurred a few more times when we put two and two together and figured out it was our newly acquired cat that was killing these snakes and he would drag them up on the porch to show us he was earning his keep. Either that or he was just a trophy hunter. Anyway, we lived there a couple more years before we moved. That cat was a hell of a snaker. One day I was watching him in the lot next to the house. His head was moving side to side. Then he lurched forward and was fighting with something. Then it dawned on me he was charming a snake. Sure enough later that day another dead rattle snake appeared on our porch.
