Some days I can hear my grandmother’s ghost saying “if it had been a snake it would have bit me.”
It was a snake. It nearly did! I was about 3 feet away from the front door when I spotted this specimen winding his way through the stones at the front of the house.
Fortunately, I’m pretty sure it’s not poisonous. I’m no herpetologist, but I think this is a plain old black rat snake. It was a pretty good size – 5 or 6 feet long, and not very aggressive. At least not until I started poking it with a stick. But eventually it relented and slithered off into the flower bed to do whatever rat snakes do.
I’m no snake charmer, either. But living in the country, I’ve seen the messes rats can make. Left unchecked, they can be incredibly destructive.
So for the time being, at least, the rat snake stays.