My dog Tucker was spending time with me in the studio when he suddenly started barking and snarling out in the gallery. I rushed out to find him face to face with a large Black Rat Snake, coiled up in a corner by the counter. I had dealt with this situation before and knew it was best to get Tucker out of the arena first and then deal with the snake, but since it was near lunchtime, I decided to let the snake find it's own way out. The snake was gone by the time I got back and I mostly forgot about the incident. An occasional snake in the studio or even the house isn't that unusual.

But the next day when I reached into the cabinet underneath the counter to power up the stereo receiver, I poked something soft that moved, and I somehow knew it was the snake. When I stooped to take a look, sure enough the snake was curled up on top of the receiver and partly draped over the front. It seemed docile enough and it hadn't bitten me for poking, so I reached in again, turned on the receiver and shut the cabinet. In the days that followed, the snake would typically be absent in the mornings and back on the receiver in the afternoons, otherwise, I never saw it out and about. After a week of this routine, I didn't see the snake for a couple days and assumed that it had moved out, which is what I expected based on my experience with other snakes that had boarded with me.

Black Rat Snake descending ladder.    (+)

Two days later, I was working on the gallery lights and after breaking for lunch, I returned to find the snake perched atop my ladder. Although having a snake, hanging around like this probably isn't the best idea from a business standpoint, I was glad to see it again, so I worked on other things around the gallery and let it have the ladder. Eventually, it came down, slid past me, and rounded the counter into the workshop.

From where it had straightened up somewhat, while moving past the counter, I estimated its length at about five and a half feet, which isn't unusual. Black Rat Snakes, also known as the western rat snake, pilot black snake, or simply black snake are one of the longest snakes in North America, with adults typically ranging from 3.5 to 6 feet and occasionally exceeding 8 feet. They are non-venomous, excellent climbers, seem to enjoy climbing on ladders, and are common throughout central and eastern United States. Often found near human dwellings and farmlands, they are considered beneficial by humans because they prey heavily on mice and rats. They also eat birds, bird eggs, frogs, chipmunks, and squirrels, killing their prey by constriction. So, they are not always as docile as they might seem. Later when I walked back to the workshop the snake was nowhere to be seen, and I never saw it in the studio again. Perhaps it grew tired of gallery life or more likely, the mice had been cleared out of the building and it moved on to better hunting grounds.