(May 30, 2008)

ORANGE GROVE--Orange Grove residents have been calling us about what they say is a serious rattlesnake problem in that area and today a young boy is recovering from a snake bite after he was bit while playing at a party .

They said this year diamondback rattlers are showing up in residential gardens, open fields and even where their kids play. It's believed the snakes are just looking for food and water, but the residents said it's the worst they've seen in years.

"They can be about anywhere and as dry as it is now they blend in real well," said Jimmy Koenning, an Orange Grove resident. "They're all little bitty ones. The rattle isn't very loud so you can't tell them that well."

"At night time, we fear even going up to our door. I've had them up to my door and we fear it because we need to have lights out," said Anna Cavazos, an Orange Grove resident. "You have to be very careful where you stand and where you step into you know."

Just yesterday, one of those rattlers wound up biting a five-year old boy, but there was much more to this story than meets the eye. A family was having a pool party to celebrate the end of school. Two kids asked if they could play on the slide and that's when a rattlesnake put an end to the party.

"We said just watch out for snakes," said Susan Canavas. 

That was the last word of advice from Canavas to her 4 year-old daughter Annie and a 5 year-old family friend Jacob Fuhrken.

Shortly after that, her dog starting barking around the playground area. That's when this two foot long rattlesnake appeared.

"Did you see the snake? No," said Annie Canavas. "You didn't? It came out of nowhere? A little tiny hole."

"I don't even think it was two minutes later," Susan Canavas. "He came running up and he was screaming and he got bit."

Now, annie is so scared, she can't even go near the slide where Fuhrken was bit. Her mother said the family friend was a brave boy.

"He pushed her because he saw the snake and it came up and it got him instead of her," Canavas said. 

The family said the snake was defending itself when it bit Fuhrken.

"So that was a good thing," said Canavas. "The snake was not being aggressive. It was scared. It was on defense so that how he got bit."

The snake was shot and killed, but the Canavas family saved the rattler for Fuhrken.

"My husband cut it off for him," Canavas said. "We have it soaking in alcohol of the snake. That's why we're calling him Jake the Snake."

"You want to play against me," said 5-year-old Fuhrken, as he spoke to us from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Driscoll Children's Hospital. He had just ordered his lunch, pizza and hotdogs, and was ready to play a Scooby Do Video Game.

He's a lucky boy, a rattlesnake's bite on his calf could have easily taken his life.

"It makes me cry," said Rosalind Fuhrken, Jacob's mother. "It just scared me so bad, but he's ok."

She told us, "He's strong." It's then that Jacob nodded.

Concerned about the swelling in his leg, Jacob is still at Driscoll. The plan is to move him to his own room, while nurses and doctors monitor his leg. It's still sensitive to touch, swollen and is draining fluid. Jacob still doesn't like for it to be touched.

His mom says Jacob hardly cried. Instead in the ambulance on the way to the hospital he was asking about his friend Annie.

--Manuel De La Rosa and Katy Kiser, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com and kkiser@kiiitv.com