SUPERIOR — The attack came without the usual warning: a rattle.
Ellen Hudiburg, her 9-year-old son and their 11-year-old Cairn terrier were walking at noon Saturday on a trail in Superior, near McCaslin Boulevard and Coalton Road, when a rattlesnake appeared out of nowhere and lunged at the dog, McDuff.
“It whipped around and struck him, and then it struck my foot and tugged at my laces,” Hudiburg said. “I was freaking out and pulled away, and I saw this thing coil and rattle.”
Her son was screaming, and — at first — McDuff was quiet. Then, Hudiburg said, he began to howl.
“I leaned down to see if he got hit, and there was blood running from his eyes,” she said. “Then he started making an awful noise and biting the dirt.”
Hudiburg scooped McDuff up and started running to her car, less than a mile away, but McDuff faded fast.
“I felt him die in my arms,” said Hudiburg, who lives in Erie with her husband, son and two teenage daughters.
Read more about snake dangers and McDuff at .
