Even though Rat Snakes do dine on small mammals I have not heard of one attacking a cat which would be about four times as large as a chipmunk, or more. Also, contrary to some myths, these snakes do not wrap themselves around prey and squeeze as a constrictor would. While they do wrap themselves around tree branches that is to hold on and is not a means of obtaining prey. Here is a link that might be useful: About Rat Snakes

In CT, spring is not here yet. Is there anyway to encourage snakes to take up residence on my property (maybe not the copperheads)? I have an overabundance of moles, voles and mice and would much prefer snakes!

Well done Gary. I think that I may just know what area you found. I may email you to see. If not, I would love to know where the Timber den you found is. I work for a project that catalogs T&E herp species in Kansas and I am creating a map of all of the known Timber dens in northeast Kansas. The website for the project is: www.smoky-hills.com/kansas ...And let me just say, welcome to Kansas! :) chad

The areas we night hunted Chad had been to previously. During the day we explored, searching for hogs and anything else that happened to be out in the 85-90 degree weather. Besides the turtles, we saw another recently hit copperhead, a DOR coachwhip, and a ribbon snake in the field. I missed a rough green in the field, which was very frustrating as I seem to otherwise have a DOR curse for the species (which continued through this trip as is evidenced on the list below). We discovered one beautiful drive which proved that the suspected resident was indeed in the area. Unfortunately, we were late in crossing his pathI tried to crop a small section of this once handsome specimen to cut out gore: We decided to walk the hillside habitat, but only a large box turtle was aboutÂin different conditions/time of year, this area certainly would have showed us more. By evening, we felt like we needed a break from driving and DORs before cruising that night, so when we came up on a couple of bridges we hopped out to walk around. Not expecting much more than the chance to stretch the legs and dodge poison ivy, I scrambled down under the bridge. After poking around a bit, my eyes crossed the path of this impressive beastÂright in the middle of the creek: We had just been musing about whether we were in cottonmouth range yetÂwe were Western Cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma , no flashÂalthough lacking detail, I liked the texture effect of this shot with flash As we were taking pictures, Chad noticed a small snake submerged not more than a couple feet from the cottonmouth. It turned out to be a blotched water snakeÂwe couldnÂt escape nerodia-less. Rejuvenated, we started the pigmy/pygmy (whichever you prefer) quest. After missing 2 or 3 more rough greens to trucks and semis in front of us, we came over a hill and had to quickly veer to straddle this fellowÂnote the car cresting the hill that would have been his doom. Black rat snake, Elaphe o. obsoleta And then we found him, shining white against the headlights, Mr. Streckeri  a beautiful animal, with an almost orange stripe: Western Pigmy/Pygmy Rattlesnake, Sistrurus miliarius streckeri Awhile later, Chad spied another great animal along the edge of the road. Speckled kingsnake, Lampropeltis getulus holbrooki On the way out, Chad spotted one more pigmy, this time a DOR--my eyes seemed to be done by now and seemed to be on 2-plus foot snake focus. We left the area early (11:00 PM), satisfied with our finds and wanting to get the drive home over with-- This is the list of species seen, as best as I can rememberÂIÂm sure I am forgetting a few: Western Pygmy Rattlesnake, Sistrurus miliarius streckeri 2 (1 DOR) Western Cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma 1 Timber Rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus 1 (DOR) Broad-banded copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix laticinctus 6 (3 DOR) Northern Scarlet snake, Cemophora coccinea copei 1 (DOR) Speckled kingsnake, Lampropeltis getulus holbrooki 1 Prairie Kingsnake - Lampropeltis c. calligaster 1 (DOR) Black rat snake, Elaphe o. obsoleta 2 (1 DOR) Northern Rough Green snake, Opheodrys a. aestivus 6 (5 DOR) Blotched water snake, Nerodia erythrogaster transversa 1 Bull snake, Pituophis melanoleucus sayi 1 (DOR) Texas brown snake, Storeria dekayi texana 2 Eastern Coachwhip, Masticophis flagellum flagellum 1 (DOR) Prairie Racerunner, Cnemidophorus sexlineatus viridis 6 Northern Fence Lizard, Sceloporus undulatus hyacinthinus 1 Three-toed Box Turtle - Terrapene carolina triunguis (many) Ornate Box Turtle - Terrapene ornata ornate (many) Red-eared Slider - Trachemys scripta elegans 5+ Midland Smooth Softshell - Apalone mutica mutica ? 1 Eastern Snapping Turtle - Chelydra serpentina serpentine (DORs) Southern Leopard Frog - Rana sphenocephala utricularia (hundreds) American Bullfrog - Rana catesbeiana (many) Eastern/Cope's Gray Treefrog - Hyla versicolor/chrysoscelis (many) Woodhouse's Toad - Bufo woodhousii woodhousii Northern Spring Peeper - Pseudacris crucifer crucifer (heard) Western Chorus Frog - Pseudacris triseriata (heard)