I had a mountain kingsnake in my house not much larger than a garden snake a couple of years ago. Been here 25 years, never seen one before or since in the house. They kind of unnerve you when they jump out (any snake). But, I kind of enjoy seeing the harmless ones.
My daughter was sitting on a retaining wall when she was about 4 while I was mowing. She suddenly went into hysterics and fell on the ground screaming bloody murder. I of course ran to her as fast as possible and couldn't understand a word she said. I told her to calm down and tell me what was wrong, she said; "A snake, a snake and it bit me!", I of course said where and she said on her side. I looked and said; "I don't see a thing but white skin it couldn't have bitten you." To which she replied; "Well it licked me!" I said; "lets see if we can find it." I found a small Garter snake about 12 inches long and about 1/2" across. I explained that it really didn't have teeth that couldn't hurt her and showed her the small nubby teeth. She said; "Can I hold it", so I said sure. She played with it for half an hour until I said to turn it loose. Two days later she brought in another one to my real concern at that point (afraid I had over emphasised the point). I had to explain that she couldn't go around picking up just any snake because some are poisonous and it was ok since she knew that that one was a Garter snake. Thankfully she got the message. She turned into a real animal lover. One little boy remarked when she was about 8 "I really like Ariana mama, she's the only girl that will hunt lizzards with me". I wish she had kept looking at the lizzards.
