After the County Sheriff leaves the rattlesnake hunt to visit the scene of the accident, we see him at a diner sitting at a table with a pastry box next to him that has air holes poked in the top and a small rattlesnake inside. He tries to feed the snake some steak with a fork, but the snake won't eat it. He wonders if the snake would like some hamburger or milk, because it's only a baby. The hard-boiled bleached-blonde working behind the counter tells him to try a lollipop and throws one into the snake's box. Tatum enters and offers the snake his right arm to bite, adding that the sheriff might also want to bite him. He knows the sheriff is upset about having to leave the rattlesnake hunt where he was campaigning, but Tatum eventually convinces him that if he lets him have an exclusive story about the cave in, he will help the sheriff's election campaign by making him famous.

A few days later we see the sheriff in Tatum's room with his rattlesnake in its box on the bed. He tells Tatum that it won't eat meat or cheese or bugs. The only thing he can get the snake to eat is chewing gum with the foil wrapper left on it.

The snake we see coiled in the box is a dead juvenile rattlesnake. The snake's rattle is pulled up and shaken by a thread or something similar to accompany the rattle sounds we hear. We don't see the snake move, only the rattle. The loosely-closed thin cardboard box is probably the worst container for a snake imaginable. Any snake would escape from it before you knew it was even trying to get out. And just for the record, a rattlesnake won't eat gum or anything except a live animal or one that died recently.