Watch this snake that dropped into a Charlotte NC kitchen for some eggs:

[countryjake]

46. My brother and I had an "incident" with this fella, a few months after the pic.

Even tho we'd both grown up with the Black Rats and had been taught as kids by both our folks that they were to be treated as well as any of our other critters, not to be harassed in any way, we failed their lessons, hilariously, as we were cutting and clearing things after my mother passed away. That snake in the photo was dubbed "Ollie", due to a scene involving an old Apple tree, an extension ladder, a chain saw, and my bro, consequently renamed "Stan Laurel".

After picking up many a harmless snake in my time (probably Ollie's great-great-great grandparents), on that day, I simply could not bring myself to grab him. He was at least a good seven foot long and his head was almost as large as my hand.

We raised chickens when I was a kid and the Rat Snakes never harmed any of them, not even the chicks, but they sure kept the rats from getting our corn! I've watched them stalk, wrap, and swallow, too.