It was a horrifying situation,” said Shelley McPherson, 45, of Powell, “absolutely horrifying.”On the morning of Saturday, Sept. 5, McPherson was playing fetch with a dog and cat at Deaver Reservoir when she was bitten in the left foot by a rattlesnake.It was a typical Saturday for McPherson; she visits the reservoir often. But that run-of-the-mill morning was shattered in an instant.

McPherson was walking back up the trail, calling the dog and cat. She didn't see the rattler until too late.

“It felt like someone hit my foot with a hammer,” McPherson said.

She turned around, but the venomous reptile was gone.

From there, recollections are a bit fuzzy.

She shouted to an out-of-state camper her situation, then loaded the cat and dog in her car.

By then, McPherson was starting to stagger.

She got in her car and drove away.

McPherson veered off the highway, and Park County Sheriff's Deputy Andy McGill was there.

McGill loaded McPherson into his unit and began transporting her to Powell Valley Hospital. An ambulance crew met him near Lane 5.

Trooper Allen Cooper of the Wyoming Highway Patrol notified McPherson's son, Jared, of the situation, McPherson said.

“They did a fantastic job,” she said.

Powell Hospital is like a blur.

“I remember lying there,” she said.

McPherson had an allergic reaction to the snake's venom and to the antivenin. She doesn't know the exact time frame, but she was transported by life-flight to St. Vincent's Healthcare in Billings. There, she spent two days in the intensive care unit and another two days in the hospital before being released.

Then followed a week of bed rest with lots of suffering.

“It's amazing how much pain can come from that poison,” McPherson said.

Her toes are still black, gray and bruised. Her leg is freakishly swollen.

“I am walking,” but she said most of her time the foot is propped on a pillow.

Everyone was kind and helpful, from the camper who she believes called the police, to Powell and Billings hospital personnel, to her friends, family, boss, coworkers and clergyman.

McPherson moved here from Puyallup, Wash., one and a half years ago and said she is thankful for the tight-knit community of Powell.

“If I would have been out there by myself, I wouldn't be talking to you today,” she said.

McPherson said she was told it will require six to eight weeks to recover fully.

Now she uses a stick to whack weeds in case a rattlesnake is lurking, hidden. On Monday, her first day at work since the incident, she feared a rattlesnake was beneath her car.

“I'm paranoid, to say the least,” McPherson said. But she believes she eventually will overcome her fears and spend more time out of doors again.

“You can't live in fear, but you have to live in awareness,” McPherson said.

Now, McPherson does not take life for granted.

“It's going to be OK,” McPherson said.