Night Time Visitor

Living where I do, it isn't unusual to find wildlife near the house. Sometimes it's in the house. The other night, I was getting ready to turn out the lights when I spotted Scipio the cat playing with something that looked like a long lizard tail, or a really big worm. A closer peek, before Scipio ran off with his prey, revealed a very small snake, a type that didn't look familiar.

I managed to scoop up Scipio and lock him in the bedroom before the snake was damaged. Even harder was capturing the snake without hurting it. It was little, and hey, I'm not afraid of snakes but I am skittish about picking them up. I only squeaked once or twice, and the snake was caught. I was feeling pretty brave after this.

Whenever I find an unfamiliar reptile, I contact my brother-in-law, a lover of all things scaly and wriggly. I knew it was past his bedtime, so I left the little snake in the garage in a plastic box. Oh, and warned the other family members, so there were no unpleasant surprises. In the morning, I emailed snake pictures to my BIL and checked out this website; http://californiaherps.com/.

We agreed that this snake is a Western Black Headed Snake, Tantilla planiceps. At first we thought it was a ring neck snake. It turned out to be a very nice to handle little snake, and very pretty in the morning light. After I took the pictures I set the little snake loose outside. Somewhere I hope the cat won't find him.

I told you it was little.

I really like the iridescent sheen of his scales.