Office Sharing

It seems that there was an advertisement that I didn't know about that I was looking to lease some of the office space at our house.  I was trying to think of what magazine the ad would have run in.  Maybe Consssssumer Reportssss or perhaps Bussssinessss World for that young, up-and-coming, legless reptile looking for a room with a view?

If you don't recognize the critter in the picture above it is a Western Fox Snake...  Though, I don't think it would care if we called it a Genuine Faux Farm Snake or perhaps if we called it Tyrone.  All it seemed to care about was the fact that the sun was coming into the office window very nicely and it was nice and WARM.

Ty, as we shall now call the snake, was about forty inches long and it really wasn't terribly interested in being bothered.  It had found the corner office suite of its dreams and it was intent on absorbing all of the sunrays it could.  As I approached, it steadfastly ignored me until it was apparent that I wanted to move him or her.  Once it determined that was my plan, it flicked its tongue at me and started shaking its tail, making a slight rattling noise.

Let's just say that I backed off for a bit until we were certain this was a Fox Snake.  Yep, thinner head, pupils are round and markings are correct.

Effective bit of mimicry there Ty, nicely done.  But, we still had to evict you. 

The good news for us is that we are actually fans of snakes at the farm.  They tend to eat some of the pests that cause us problems and they are an indicator that we're doing a decent job with the habitat here.  The bad news for Ty is that we really weren't all that interested in sharing the office space, but we were happy to take Ty outside, in hopes that it will go catch a few mice for us.

The Western Fox Snake is actually a protected species in Iowa and is a constrictor, which means it tends to kill its prey by giving it a nice tight squeeze.  Fox snakes also can release a musky smell if they are frightened or threatened.  (it wasn't too powerful, but it wasn't terribly pleasant either)  These critters can live as long as 17 years in captivity, although Itsy Bitsy was still alive at the Dickinson County Nature Center lived to be 26!

Fox snakes are apparently quite capable of climbing (as Ty illustrated) and swimming and are probably just now really getting going in Iowa since we've had a slow Spring.  Once we get past the early parts of the warmer months, we won't see much for fox snakes because they'll do more of their moving and hunting during the night-time hours.

Ty is not the only snake to have founds itself INSIDE the Genuine Faux Farm house.  Many years ago we wondered why the cats were making a fuss until we found a little Garter Snake desperately trying to find a place to hide, since the way out was blocked by curious felines.

This is also not the first time a Western Fox Snake has been sighted inside the house.  Just a few years ago at about the same time of the year, this fox snake was found in our basement.  It has a lighter color and it is much shorter, which marks it as a younger snake.  

Ty is this your baby picture?

Western Fox Snakes, like Garter Snakes, are fairly good at adapting to human disturbance, which is part of the reason Ty wasn't too concerned about sharing our habitation.  The humans (Tammy and I) are actually not too unhappy about fox snakes in the basement.  Frankly, the old farm house will never be completely sealed up and we both actually don't mind having something like Ty to help control the mice that inevitably try to make our house their home too.

But, I am afraid we had to draw the line on the visit to the office.  All of the tongue flicking was making it hard for Rob to focus on his writing.