We had this sort of love-hate thing going with the snakes on the property. Actually, it was more like those we tolerated (non-venomous) and those we steered well clear of (rattlesnakes, coral snakes, moccasins for the most part.) However, we did end up encouraging a truly large, fat, 3-foot long rat snake to live between the walls of the house and up in the “attic” space above the drop ceilings in the two bedrooms and bath that were added onto the cabin.

The reason we tolerated this snake was rats and mice. A few months after moving in we finally got around to checking out that space when we were running some electrical wire to upgrade the system. Lo and behold, there were huge rat traps and mice traps and enough droppings to make clear that the attic was inhabited by rodents, or had been not too long ago.

About the same time of this discovery, Anni spotted a large, fat rat snake slither into a 4-inch hole in the wall of the 4th bedroom, which we used as an art studio and home office.

“Well, at least we know now what that hole was there for,” Anni said, scratching her chin as we stood in the office studying the hole.

We figured that if we nailed a square of hardware cloth over the hole, that might keep the snake up in the attic and out of the house. It was a quick project, but we didn’t kid ourselves that the snake would probably come and go as it pleased. We were after all living in a log cabin built in the 1940s and it surely had all manner of gaps and holes that the snake might discover. But we decided that was OK because now we knew that snake, and all we had to do was not panic if we saw it, give it plenty of space and keep mum about it when we had guests.

We discussed whether Echo the lab or Cami the cat would mess with the snake but we decided it was too big for either of them to take on, and so we left it at that.

Fast-forward to a cold, pitch dark night when Anni was staying at the cabin alone and got in very late from working in Ocala. You have to imagine a cabin with the interior temps the same as the outside (in the 50s), no heat, no fire in the fireplace. The dog and cat had long since gone to sleep in the big fluffy dog bed at the foot of Anni’s waterbed.

Exhausted from a long day, Anni brushed her teeth, put on her PJs and crawled into her nice warm, heated waterbed to settle in for the night. That’s when she felt something at her feet move. Telling the story later, she had us all in stitches as she described lying still and thinking about what that might be- couldn’t be Echo or Cami, they were on their bed. Couldn’t be her date, she’d come home alone. (OK that’s a joke.)

She rolled over gently and turned on her bedside lamp. Under the covers at the foot of her bed was a lengthy, fat shape and it was slowly writhing – just like a snake. Just like a big, fat rat snake.

Pandemonium ensued, as Anni leapt from the bed, the waterbed bladder undulating crazily, propelling the snake out from under the covers and onto the floor, and causing Cami to take off like a scalded cat. Echo barked like crazy and chased the snake around the base of the bed while Anni snatched at Echo’s dog collar, trying to pull her away before Echo got bit in the nose.

The snake found refuge between the back of the bed frame and the wall, with Echo on one side peering into the opening and barking and Anni on the other side with a flashlight in her hand, pondering her next move.

As she tells it, Anni grabbed Echo, drug her into the great room, closed the bedroom door, and saw the snake crawl quickly through the other bedroom doorway to the short hallway beyond. Anni followed and peeked around the doorway, only to see the snake disappear into the office at the end of the hallway.

Anni quickly closed the office door behind the snake then raced back through her bedroom, into the great room, over to the other office door, closed that one and Voila! The snake was at least confined to the office– where it stayed until the next day, when Anni crept in, removed the hardware cloth from over the hole in the wall, and crept back out again. She decided she didn’t need to go looking for the snake in the jumble of items in the office closet, surely the reptile was curled up there and would go back to its old hole and home to its attic.

Anni said she never did spot that snake again, and figured it was so traumatized by the event that it either went away or made up its mind to live happily ever after in the attic.

Oh, and we never did have any real problems with rats. Ever.