photo: wikipedia
Early this morning, Annie came face-to-face with a snake in the corner of the dog pen. She wouldn’t leave the corner. She kept lunging into something, then backing up quickly. Even when called in for breakfast, she wouldn’t leave it. I went over to check it out – and there it was.
It’s not at all uncommon to have garter snakes around the farm. They love to hang out under the stone steps and come out to bask in the sun. This snake was very different. Unknown to me. It wasn’t retreating and quickly slivering off, as the garter snakes do. It was standing in attack. I was grateful it was Annie that found it. She kept backing away as it lunged toward her. Lily would not have backed away. She would have grabbed that thing in her mouth and surely been biten. Last summer, she rapidly lunged at a garter sunning itself on the stone step. Off she ran up onto the hill, the 2 foot snake dangling from her mouth.
After safely removing the snake from the yard, I ran inside and googled the description. A wikipedia write-up with image seemed to indicate our invader was an eastern milk snake. Bites – yes. Venimous – no. I am relieved, certain there are others. We do have a healthy share of snakes around here. The write-up said milk snakes eat rodents, slugs, and other pests. Sounds like a good one to have around. I hope so! This was a baby, about a foot long. The adults can grow to 2-3 feet in length. Might be hard for me to remove an adult from the pen!