Gail Bragg told of her encounter with a nonvenemous Black Rat Snake in an email:

Well, at 9:00 I went out on the porch to take a final look at my project for the day (the steps) and guess what was draped on the railing? Over about 15 minutes it crawled from one end of the railing to the other; I thought it was going to go up the post to where the bird nest is, but instead it kept going toward our bedroom wall. I came inside and grabbed one of my walking sticks to push it off -- heard it hit the ground with a thud. No telling where it will be tomorrow. (Photo by Gail Bragg, June 26, 2006)