He was probably cold, and just trying to warm up, or he would have run at the site of you. Maybe there was some warm air coming out from under the door that made him want to stay there. I'm thinking the cold water was a good solution. I've never had a non-poisonous snake that didn't run, though, so I can't help you there.

Thanks, dirtygardener. I'm sure he's been having a bad week. He's probably been happily minding his own business in the shrubbery on the patio next door, where the owners usually are only here about three weekends a year, but they just this week rented it to a bunch of young construction workers, so I imagine he might also have been a bit discombobulated at losing his peaceful home.

I suspect your rat snake is a lot like my black racer, Maurice, who frequents my front stoop to sun himself in the late morning and afternoon. Maurice has lived in my front planter for about two years now; last summer I found out Maurice was really a she, as there were little Maurices a plenty squiggling around. I can tell when Maurice is out when I hear a scream from my wife or daughter as they walk out the front door. And we haven't seen a palmetto bug in the last year-Mo doing his/her job.

If I know it's a non-poisonous snake, then I usually just watch them as long as they will let me. ...and I talk to them. Perhaps, I bore them to tears, so they slither away thinking, what kind of a crazy lady talks to snakes. ;)

Billbrandi, I used to have a friendly black racer that lived in a hole by the gate, until a winter-visiting neighbor who seemed like such a nice old lady stomped it to death. (She said she was afraid it would eat her cocker spaniel.)

FLgardenmom, I'm not sure I could cope with knowing I was a source of snake ennui. :)

Hi
I disturbed a racer that was curled up in the crown of a tree fern. He struck right at my face. While I'm not particlarly afraid of snakes it helps to be prepared ?? lol
i did yelp somewhat like a small girl but only for a second.lol Feel rather fortunate it was not a cobra or one of those 20 foot pythons that florida is becoming so famous for lol Will rethink entire view of snakes for that encounter lol gary

Yikes, gary!

I would probably use the broom next time, if there is a next time. My friend just had a 6 foot diamondback rattler in her greenhouse. She didn't want to kill it. Don't know what happened to that one. We had a little 1 1/2 foot diamond back in the front yard this spring. First time I have seen one(alive) since we moved to Florida in 1989.

The thing about rattlers is that they don't want to be anywhere near you, and unless they are trapped, they will backytrack to get away. Now desert diamondbacks are different, because they can't see well and will track heat. Mocassins will chase you too. I remember the young man that my aunt's in-laws had clearing their land on the island where my mom grew up. He killed a 6-foot diamondback with a hoe. He said it didn't have time to coil. It was early in the morning, still chilly, and he caught it sleeping. We used to find puff adder skins in the house every summer when we would go down for vacation. We never could figure out where the snake was getting in, but he was, and he liked shedding his skin in the back room that used to be my grandmother's room. A man clearing land once told us that if we knew how many rattlers there were in our yard, we would never leave the house. It was so sad how he died. He and his family had been clearing land on that island for over 100 years, and he got bit by a diamondback and died before he could get to the hospital.

Hmm, I just went out to take out the trash and on the way back he was stuck to the wall by the front door like a lizard. I didn't think snakes could do that--it's fairly rough stucco, so it would be easy to climb, but he was motionless, just sitting there a couple of feet off the ground.

We pretended not to see one another and I went in and shortly afterwards saw him down on the patio looking in at me through the kitchen slider.