Midnight Snake

[GarterGreen]

I was sitting here looking over the internet. It had been an odd night: my (online) friend had introduced me to the artwork of horror artist Junji Ito. It is full of just the kind of monsters and horrible things I like.

I ordered a copy of "Uzumaki" and the online chatting was about to turn to other subjects when I became aware of a lapping sensation at my foot. It felt just like my dog licking my toe, which she sometimes does. I froze when I realized that I had already put the dog out to sleep in the living room. When I looked down I saw a dark shadow against my foot. I moved my foot and it sprang alive and ran wetly over my foot and under my bed. Small something? Definitely a rodent. I'd been lucky from autumn till now and had no mice that had tried to move in. And why was it wet?

I am an adult woman with no fear of rodents but I found myself making a deep mournful huuuuuuahhhhhh of disgust. I curled my toes. I'd have to put a snap trap down.

I texted my buddy and she texted back: was it raining outside? My room has a door leading into the backyard and I stood up, and stepped outside onto the patio. I looked down at the grass which was a little damp looking and then to the side a bit of yellow caught my eye. A huge female garter was looking intently at my door. I reached down and picked her up.

She's huge, I want to let her rest tonight before I get a measurement, so I'll have to update in the morning for pictures. I keep my backdoor cracked on beautiful nights like this and I can only think that there was a struggle with the mouse and it shot off and stopped--wounded?--by my foot to clean itself or reassess.

I thawed out one of the trout heads I have in the freezer and put it with the snake in case she wakes up hungry. I'm not sure if I'll keep her, but I bet after having a huge litter this year and missing her meal, she could use some nutrition.

I had a look at the times on the posts online and realized I'd stepped outside to look around exactly at midnight.

Although the snake did not musk on me I am absolutely covered in that reptile smell. I am starting a small breeding program for mice and I have my first pregnant female in a ten gallon in here. By my calculations she is going to drop her litter in the next two days. Is she more likely to eat them with the smell of snake around?

Edit: She's already eaten the trout head.

[guidofatherof5]

Love to see a photo of your Tham visitor.

[GarterGreen]

Love to see a photo of your Tham visitor.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8...FBFNTRfLXN5RHc

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8...09YeTVFakthRGM

Today I've got to get her a better place to rest. The five gallon bucket was the first thing at hand last night!

[guidofatherof5]

She's beautiful. Thanks for posting the photos.

[Eddie]

Great looking Eastern!!

[Albert Clark]

Nice , healthy looking reptile there.

[GarterGreen]

The mouse was a juvenile and I caught it in a Tupperware box the next day (it was confused and ran the wrong way). Ha Ha. I didn't feed it to her, she'll get better chow now.