Update April 8th
It's been a week. If we don't see the snake can we safely say it's gone now?
The Animal Control guy was here late in the afternoon. The inside temperature was in the low 60s, after the heat wave that brought the coral snake up from wherever it was hibernating. We're past asking "how did it get here" and have been concentrating on "Where is it now?" and "Is it gone yet?"
I answered the door wrapped in a blanket. The heat has not been on since he first arrived, called by the heating contractor I first called. "You want your house back, right?" he asked. I nodded. He began picking up all the glue blocks and taking them down into the basement. I offered a tray to help him, and that made less trips. Soon all the glue blocks were gone from the living room and I was told it was okay now to turn the furnace back on and put the furniture back.
This house was built in 1840 and has a dirt floor basement on half, and a crawl space and a rock foundation. Huge limestone boulders one can only imagine them being put in place with only horses and levers. There's plenty of ways out as well as in for a snake.
Supposedly nocturnal, my visitor coral snake came up when the house was unseasonably warm, close to 80 degrees in the evening. By contrast, it is in the low 30s today and it was snowing when I woke up. That's April.
I won't forget. I'm keeping an eye on the corners in every room. I have a camera ready and a flashlight and a phone number to call. I really don't think I'll see that snake again. A neighbor's pet? A stowaway on a produce truck passing through on the highway? The how it got here questions provide plots for future stories. I've decided my snake was male. I will never forget him and the shock he gave me.
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