" She's usually pretty unflappable and calm, but snakes squick her out a bit. She wasn't in a panic, but it certainly the snake was an unacceptable hood ornament for her drive home. Wes told her he'd be right out, obviously forgetting that I'm the official critter getter in the family (well, he can take care of the really gross stuff, like cockroaches and mice), so I had to race him out the door to rescue mom as she pulled back in the driveway.When we got out there, we found a cute little Grey Rat Snake (or White Oak Snake, depending where you're from), just slithering down the side of the car. I gently scooped him up and ran off inside to show him off to the kids. He didn't try to bite me, if you catch rat snakes very gently and carefully, they generally don't freak out and bite. He did musk a little to show his displeasure with being handled. The kids thought he was awesome. I got one picture, it isn't great, but have you ever tried to wield a camera while keeping a snake under control while a 6yo, 4yo and 2yo are bouncing around and trying to touch the snake?
We admired him for a little while, then released him in the back yard, well away from where mom parks. I let him crawl up the side of the big oak tree next to our compost pile. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that, it's amazing to see a rat snake go almost straight up a tree. If you were to look at their bodies in cross-section, you'd see that they are sort of loaf-shaped, like a slice of bread. This shape gives them some nice corners on their bellies to wedge into and grip any available crack for climbing. Pretty nifty trick for a critter with no legs, isn't it? Hopefully, he'll stick around and we will see him once in a while. He's a welcome friend.
