For the last year or two, we've had another resident in our house, in a manner of speaking. We've had, living between our house's siding and the house itself, a friendly little garter snake. While last year's temporary summer pet was a turtle that Erik accidentally caught while fishing, we decided to make this garter snake this year's temporary summer pet.
After the snake was seen a few times basking in the sun near our newly rebuilt front stoop, we went outside with a net and blocked its entrance to its hiding place inside of our siding. He crawled right into the net and so it began.
Erik decided that since the snake crept around the outside of the house like a fugitive, it should be called "Fugi". Fugi is now in the house (the basement specifically), living the good life in his newly set up habitat. As you can see in this picture, he likes it on top of this tree stump and has already shed his skin once.
We've taken the time to do some research on garter snakes and have set up a heated zone on one side of the habitat, so that the snake can vary its temperatures as it sees fit. We've also learned about feeding garter snakes and have so far successfully fed Fugi worms a few times. We're going to branch out into other foods shortly, though I'll spare you the gruesome details of this feeding.
So far, we're really enjoying our visit from Fugi. In a few weeks to a couple of months, we'll return him to the wild, though likely not in our yard. I'd really rather he lived somewhere besides the exterior of our house.
All you need to do is stand still for a while and observe. Eventually, they'll catch your eye.
They're still pretty small, but hopefully a lot of them will make it to adulthood, because of feeding on garden pests.
Click directly on the pictures to expand them in size. Return to this page by using your "back" button.
