Close encounters of the reptilian kind

One final bit -- Little dog Sophie (see pic, 9/24) may have saved my life. I was in the guest house doing my laundry when I heard Sophie barking like mad. I thought she was pestering the cats, so I went outside to stop her, and there she was in a fang to fang showdown with what was probably a copperhead. She was barking and lunging and the snake was making a show of striking her. I called her inside, no small task since she's a born fighter, plus the dogs aren't allowed in the houses. She finally did come to me, and I whisked her inside, out the other side of the house, into the Ford, and up the hill to the main house. I say she may have saved my life b/c where the snake was coiled was right where I'd set down the watering can less than an hour before, and I'd planned to keep watering after putting in wash! Sophie's a spoiled girl, but she's a very, very, good, brave, spoiled girl. Thank you, Jesus, for tough little dogs, in particular, one certain Jack Russell terrier.