How's Everyone Feeling Right Meow?

[Athene]

Thanks a lot, y'all. Bit of an emotional tailspin, as you saw, but I'm flying straight and level again. A timely call from a dear friend who understands my recovery issues from her own experience realm helped, too. Thank y'all, and thanks, Bets.

It nice to have friends who "get it", more or less.
Makes a difference.

I'm glad you're feeling better, Thump.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Thanks, hon.

Bummer about the snake, what kind was it?

[Athene]

Thanks, hon.

Bummer about the snake, what kind was it?

I'm not sure.  It was very dark grey or black with a slight amount of red coloring; Not red banding so much as it was red between the scales. It was about 30 inches long, which I guess isn't that big for a forest or a desert. It's the biggest I've seen at my house, though. The garter snakes I usually spot around here are less than a foot long and fairly scrawny. I actually thought one was one of my kids' shoelaces once, and bent down to pick it up. Luckily, it moved.
 
Anyway, I checked the Virginia Herpetological Society's website and the Northern Black Racer and Eastern Rat Snake, look like the closest matches. Maybe even the Northern Water Snake. I can't remember which, but one of those damn snakes likes to hunker down in attics, basements and crawlspaces for the winter. None of them are venomous, though.

Northern Black Racer

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Eastern Rat Snake

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Red-bellied Water Snake

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[Thumpalumpacus]

Shame to lose a good snake like that, then. They control pests very well, and are very shy.

[Excited Penguin]

Feeling fucking stupid after what just happened.

[Athene]

Thumpalumpacus

Shame to lose a good snake like that, then. They control pests very well, and are very shy.

True enough, I suppose. 

Some of the non-venomous snakes will strike if they feel threatened or advanced upon, though. I think that the Northern Black Racer will frequently stand its ground and is known to strike repeatedly once provoked. Not necessarily safe to be around in a suburban area like this, with many small children and pets around who could agitate such a creature, unwittingly. It doesn't help that they're often mistaken for cottonmouths.

Still not terribly certain what kind of snake it was, though. Wish I'd thought to take a picture of it.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I hear you. I think we're a little more tolerant of 'em out here, though we have more of them they're wise enough to avoid most of our activities, and they help keep field mice down.

[Joods]

Perhaps it was trying to overcome its shyness by being social and yours was the first house it saw that looked nice and inviting

[SteelCurtain]

The black racers we used to wrangle when I was a kid in Florida were not friendly. If they bit you, it was 8-10 quick strikes. We'd let the little ones bite our earlobes and wore them around as earrings. Freaked our moms/sisters out. The bigger ones were mean as shit. Good memories!

[Regina]

Snakes are sassy

I've never seen a real wild one outside a zoo here in The UK. We apparently have some small ones if you go far out into the less intensely farmed country, but none so poisonous that they're considered a real danger.

The UK is such a tamed country though so we don't have much real "wildlife". Most countryside is farmland, especially in England.