ADDER and DOG

A couple of days ago I was disturbed from my gardening by the constant barking of our 2 year old mongrel. I could see her down at the bottom of a field going down to Ceibwr Bay. She was barking at something in front of her. I walked down to see what this was all about. There was this beautiful young male Adder, coiled and with its neck in an S ready to strike. The young dog was taunting it , but just keeping out of range. I called her off and went back up the hill for my camera. Of course the Adder had gone when I returned. I thought there were two interesting bits of behaviour. The snake instead of slithering away had confronted the fairly large dog. The dog, whose parents were a pedigree Golden Lab. Retriever and a pedigree Dalmation inbred for centuries, still had the instinct to know that a snake is a dangerous thing. Peter Byles