Oh dear -- I have to admit I'm totally in Natalie's camp on the snake issue; I've always liked them (of course, easy for me to say since we have no poisonous ones here...). I had a pretty good-sized garter snake living in my GH for a couple of years that I named "Slytherin'" (Harry Potter thing) -- never thought to name him after my ex, that would have been an insult to the poor snake! And last year one summer day DH went golfing, came home and parked the car in the garage and later we were sitting on the deck while the dogs ran around the yard -- next thing they were standing in front of the open garage door, barking their heads off ... when we went to see what the problem was, a big (at least 4 feet long) pine snake was coming down from the underneath part of the car, then he went back up into the frame; John backed the car out (slowly) and parked it over by the edge of the woods, and I don't think it took 5 minutes for that snake to come out and go off where he belonged, hunting rodents or whatever! All we can figure is that he came from the golf course, can't imagine he started out here, went 20 miles there, waited 4 hours or so, and came 20 miles back...
