Granny, 87, Kills Venomous Rattler With Bare Hands
Tampa octogenarian takes matters into her own hands, kills snake
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Memo to snakes: look out for Esther!
An 87-year-old Tampa woman had had it with the mother-loving snakes on her mother-loving porch.
So when a seven-inch pygmy rattlesnake slithered up to Esther Orring's door on Monday and bit her on the hand, she got even, strangling the venomous little serpent with her bare hands.
Realizing that the her wound might require a little more than a band-aid, Orring's family called an ambulance. She's been hospitalized since the incident, where she was administered several vials of antivenom for the bite on the middle finger of her right hand.
"She's a tough lady," Orring's daughter, Maria Pellicone, told WFLA. "She's a very strong person, so she will be a survivor."
Pellicone indicated that this was hardly the first critter to fall by her mother's hand, noting that she'd grown up on a farm in Italy.
But the well-gripped granny is expected to make a full recovery, and Pellicone says she'll have the dead snake framed for her.
Posted Tuesday, Aug 11, 2009 - 11:40 AM EST
