SILSBEE, Texas – A woman in Silsbee, Texas, says she is thankful to be alive after being attacked simultaneously by a snake and hawk.
“I can’t say I know how it feels to die because I’m still alive, but I really think I got close,” Peggy Jones told FOX 26 in Houston.
Peggy and her husband, Wendell, had been mowing the lawn outside their home north of Silsbee two weeks ago. While they were cutting the grass, Peggy says she felt and saw a snake fall from the sky and wrap around her arm.
“Your instincts are just to sling it off,” she said. “Then, instead of slinging off, he wrapped around my arm. As I’m slinging, he’s striking, striking, striking my glasses. All you could see was what looked like a big white mouth coming at your face.”
Peggy said she wasn’t sure what type of snake landed on her arm but said it was a dark brownish-black color. The snake never bit her but came close, striking and cracking the glasses on her face.
“All I could remember thinking [was] ‘I don’t want to die here, I can’t get rid of the snake, Jesus help me,’” she said. “It was horrifying. It’s almost like it wasn’t really happening, but it was happening.”
As the snake tried striking Peggy, a hawk tried grabbing the snake off her arm. After four attempts, she said the hawk was successful and flew off with the snake.
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“The hawk, his wings were flapping, and I could feel the wings on me [and] I could feel the snake,” said Jones. “I looked down at my arm, and I’m covered in blood, my clothes are bloody, and I could see tear marks where the talons had gotten into my skin. I could see punctures.”
Peggy’s husband heard the commotion and went running to help.
“She wasn’t speaking English,” Wendell said. “She was screaming and crying, trying to talk, but I couldn’t understand anything she said. The first words I heard were, ‘a snake fell out of the air.’ So, I [was] thinking yes, you are hysterical.”
Wendell rushed his wife to the hospital, who was treated for the injuries caused by the hawk. Pictures show blood all over her arm.
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Peggy said she’s recovering well physically, but emotionally it’s been a challenge. “The nightmares are horrific,” she said. “They’re terrible.”
According to the 64-year-old, she feels lucky to have survived the simultaneous attacks. Now, she says she has a new look on life.
“In the blink of an eye, in the snap of a finger, your life can change,” she said. “You don’t know if it’s going to be a hawk and a snake, or a car wreck. I just love everybody and everything more. Even when I eat a piece of chocolate now, it tastes so much better than it did.”