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We had an 18” hognose snake get in the house a couple of years ago. We still, to this day, do not know how it got in (which is a disturbing thought).

Anyway, I was up late reading in the living room, around 1 a.m. A movement caught my eye & it was this snake going across the carpet towards the piano ... away from my feet, which were stretched out in front of me. Thank goodness, it didn’t crawl OVER my feet!! It likely was under the couch - the chair I was in was at right angles to the couch, just off the corner.

Anyway, I was SO shocked and didn’t recognize the pattern on the snake - if I had known it was a hognose at the time, I would have grabbed it by the tail**. It went under the piano. Once I got myself together, I went to tell dad ... he asked me about 3 times “what did you say?” After he processed mentally that I was telling him there was a snake in the living room, he got himself together & came in ... he was still using canes at the time.

You cannot see under the piano, but it turns out the snake was in the corner behind the piano & half up on the molding. Dad got around to that side of the piano, took aim, & punched the snake in the head with his cane (crushed the head up against the wall). I had one of those long ‘grabbers’ elderly people use .... got the snake, took it out on the porch & made sure it was “dispatched”. Whew!!

We didn’t tell my mom for a couple of years ... it finally came out one day, but since a good amount of time had passed, she didn’t scream or faint! :-)

**I wrangle Eastern Rat Snakes out of the chicken coop - biggest one has been just over 5 feet. I don’t have a problem grabbing a non-poisonous snake by the tail. For the Rat Snakes, I have made myself a ‘snake pole’ so I can snag the head, especially when they’re in a laying box. If they’re up in the rafters, I usually use my ‘grabber’ to get the tail down to where I can grab it, then pull them out of the rafters .... this WILL get the adrenaline pumping :-)