Checking things out...

After our house was moved to its current location many, many years ago, a porch was added to the original structure, and a gap—a very tiny gap—exists between the two foundations. Snakes live in hollow space under the porch as do lizards—if they can avoid being eaten by the snakes, I guess—and they slither in and out through the crack. The only variety of snake that I have actually seen going in and out is the black rat snake, which is very common here and grows to a very large size. Once upon a time I caught one eating my baby chicks that was more than 6 feet long; and no, I did not kill it. I put it in a pillowcase and took it for a ride. Other types of snake may also hang out in there, maybe even copperheads, but I don’t know for sure. As winter gives way to spring, I find I glance over there every time I go up and down the porch steps to see if one sticking its nose out to test whether it is warm enough to come out. And sure enough, the days have been warm enough that one did wake up enough to check things out and we are seeing it fairly regularly now.. And no, we haven’t done anything about trying to get rid of them. Anything that might catch and eat a mouse or a rat is welcome to stay.