I just had a garter snake incursion in my office.
I was helping a student with a lab assignment, and she left out the double doors in my office that lead directly to outside. When I turned to go back to my desk, my eyes registered a snake-like form and my brain went ‘huh’ and it wasn’t until I was sitting down that I put it all together and wondered what the heck I had seen.
Apparently on the exterior wall of my office, right underneath the electric baseboard heater there is a small snake-friendly hole leading to outside. This must have been where that baby gopher snake obtained its ingress a couple of months ago.
I caught the smaller snake, but it peed all over the concrete floor when I picked it up. I put it in a box and went after snake two. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a hold of him, and he slithered all across the floor and dove back into the hole and just left his nose sticking out.
Another student came at that point, so I told her what was up and she was a bit leery but agreed to sit and go over her assignment while I kept an eye out on the snake. He looked briefly like he was going to come in again, but archaeology must have been a rather off-putting topic because he left.
I have the hole plugged with a screw of paper towel, but I will bring in some steel wool tomorrow and fix it properly.
I have a lot to catch up on. I haven’t had much time to write lately and I find things just escape far too quickly.