Transmitting from the Mojave Wilderness in Joshua Tree, California, now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert.

The night coming on very early now.

We try to catch an hour or two of sunshine before it's gone again because this is the time of the year we run to the sun and not from it.

And if you cannot get outside till the last rays are scattering over the western mountains, so be it.

If you are a desert walker, you know how to navigate after the sun goes down. You learn to do

this in July and August.

When it's not tolerable until the sun goes down,

you learn to avoid those canyon corners and washes that get so shadowy and dark way too quickly.

Too dark to make out the rattlesnakes

all curled up on a patch of sand

still warm from the long day.

Many a nighttime drives

to the distant all-night animal clinic

have been caused by such lack of visibility in summertime.

When the dog walks right on to the thing, rattlesnake avoidance training or not.

So let me throw in a public service announcement here and mention that if you've got dogs

and they wander the desert with you, even if it's only the acre behind your cabin,

the rattlesnake vaccine cost about $30 a shot at the vet's office, which is about $1,170 less than a single vial of rattlesnake antivenom.

And a big dog might need four or five vials of antivenom to survive a rattler bite.

Unless it got that $30 shot, ideally in the early springtime when the snakes come out again.

Which is when you should do it. if you've got dogs once a year,

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