Whatever you do, don’t try to pick one up. (I sorta think people who trifle with rattlesnakes get what they deserve … snake’s just slithering about his business and gives you a polite rattle that says “stay away or I’ll be obliged to invoke my common-law right of self-defense.” Leave him alone and he gets back to his chores of killing rats and devouring them, which, to my mind, is one of the nobler things one could do with rats, minus the devouring part).