The snake... and the lizard.
That is our wild patio pet, the Kingsnake, and another patio pet, the Bluebelly lizard (western fence lizard). The snake cruises thru regularly, and is very used to us. The lizard is homeboy local.
Just prior to that shot, the snake had entered into a water heater closet on our patio. It had followed the house foundation up to that point tasting the air, intently.
Well, it crawled into the closet, under what we thought was an attached threshold inside the closet. Turns out that the threshhold wasn't attached, and had been pushed back, and left the bottom of the door unsealed; mice moved in. (threshold now firmly attached)
The snake went into the closet, and suddenly a mama mouse came scrambling out from under the door, with babies attached to her tits.
My wife, Sarge, the Spousal Unit, grabbed one of my leather work gloves, and dead-eyed the mouse, and stunned the mama and babies. Well, I was able to scoop up the babies, and went back over the the closet to see if the snake was still there or not, as my wife was really worried for it being in the closet (shes loves snakes and lizards).
When I opened the closet door, the snake had grabbed one of the babies before mama got out. It was coiled around it, and just starting to eat it. So I waited for a moment, and dropped another baby mouse down in front of it. It ate that one, and, the feast continued until the baby mice were all gone. He was a happy snake.
So, that photo is from just after the snake crawled back out under the door, and was crossing the patio towards the fields behind us. He feels pretty easy around us.
The lizard,... he came running from far across the patio, entire curious about the snake. The lizards here don't worry much about us, as we don't bother them. We've actually named a few.
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