Wild Life continued…

Since the old post about the Virginia “wild life” we had several other encounters that I haven’t got around to blogging about. One being that we have a new pet. He’s a baby box turtle we found back when my mom was in town. While we were having our backyard lawn cut by the maintenance men, out comes this little guy onto our patio. We’ve kept him ever since and housed him in a little critter container. He loves eating caterpillars, slugs, worms, grasshoppers, roly pollies…and of course turtle food when there’s no live insects to feed him. So everyone, meet “Turbo”...

Anyways our most recent encounter tops them all. About a month ago I noticed an interesting white strip of something on the carpet, right by the base of our sliding door…
…there’s only one thing I know that sheds its skin inside out like that – snake! It was really tiny and not that long, but still, the thought of a baby snake inside the house…eh, no thanks. After emailing the photo to a local exterminator, they confirmed it appeared to be a snake’s skin. Splendid! Ok, so out here home insurance does not cover dealing with pests (unlike Irvine where it even covers ant infestations!) So there’s been a chance we probably have a baby snake lingering around the house…let's hope not, it'd be tiny and we just don’t think about it much!

Well last Sunday after finishing up lunch, I decide to take a look at the patio to find insects to feed Turbo. Just as I open the sliding door, I notice something wiggling right inside the tracks by my feet. I immediately realized it’s a snake! I quickly shut the sliding door – not slammed, because I’d rather not have guts everywhere. After “eewies” and “oh my goshes” Danno came over and slowly opened the door to see it crammed in the tracks still. So we relocate Turbo to another container…get some tongs, and Danno catches the snake... Phew!! We researched and found it was a Southern Ringneck Snake. This one is about 10” long so it an adult. Which makes me wonder, where's that baby one that shed its skin?..hmm. Anyways, there’s no way we’d keep the snake over Turbo, so eventually we let it go. Here's the guy that spooked me...
I think I handled myself well and kept the eeks to very low decibels, though I hope nothing else tops that. Especially while Danno is in the field this whole week...