Excitement with Wildlife - Santa Rita Trappist

[Luigi]

Who says life in a monastery is boring?

"We had a couple of exciting encounters with wildlife towards the end of September! First, a confused deer in the church garth jumped through one of the windows into our cloister hallway. Sisters Esther & Kate heard the crash of breaking glass and found the poor creature in the hallway! They were able to herd the deer up the hall to the phone booth where there is a sliding glass door for it to escape back outdoors. As far as we can tell, the deer was not injured. Sr. Pam cleaned up the broken glass and blocked up the broken window.

Two days later, after replacing the window and while carrying her tools back to her office, Sr. Pam encountered a rattlesnake on the sidewalk outside the art building! The snake kindly warned her of its presence by setting off its rattle, so she did not step on it, but jumped back. After alerting Sr. Rita (our second superior, who was in charge while Mother Vicki was away at the General Chapter), she called our Sonoita-Elgin Fire District’s non-emergency number and requested their assistance with rattlesnake removal. A crew of three fire fighters, two men and one woman, came right over. It was the woman fire fighter who very calmly extended a long-handled snake grabbing tool, gently captured the snake, and lifted it into a special snake bucket. One of the men put the lid on the bucket. The snake was taken away to be released back into the wild at a safe distance from buildings and people. Thank you to the Sonoita-Elgin Fire District for helping us out!"