My beloved Husband has been prowling the property today, and found two snakes. The first is in the Darling Munchkin's terrarium for a visit, but the Hubby posed the second for me to photograph:
Isn't he beautiful?!
We're pretty sure he's a black snake of some type - perhaps more specifically and eastern ratsnake, which is the largest species of snake common to Virginia. They eat rats (d'uh!), mice, frogs, birds and eggs.
They're also pretty docile, and - like king snakes - can make wonderful pets.
If you click to embiggen, I think you'll be able to see some scars where this guy got attacked sometime in the past. Fortunately, he seems to have healed up pretty well, since he's obviously healthy.
Here's a close up of that cute (!!), snakey face... Notice that the eyes are clouded. At first we thought he might be shedding, but then the Beloved Hubby speculated that perhaps it was because snakey-poo hadn't warmed up yet. He may be right; they guy who is "visiting" (the first snake he caught) had the same cloudiness, and it seems to be clearing up at he gets all cozy-warm in the terrarium.
