redneckgaijin

If you can't clearly see what the cats are all so interested in, here's a close-up:

It's not a rattlesnake- leaving aside the absence of the diamond scale pattern that's the trademark of both the endangered species of rattler native to the Big Thicket, there's no rattles on its tail. It shook its tail in warning anyway, basically patting the ground with it.

It's also not a cottonmouth, copperhead or coral snake- which runs the list of venomous snakes we have here. I don't know what kind it is specifically- yellow-green belly, dark gray back studded with little white spots.

My grandmother, when she wasn't shouting at me to kill it, kill it now!, guessed it was what she called a "gray runner."

Anyway, shortly after I snapped the pic, the snake found a gap in the ring of cats and made for the woods, seven or eight cats in cautious and curious pursuit- you know, the "let's get 'im, you first" kind of chase.

That's the first snake that's been in the yard for a year or two, and the first photo tends to explain why we have less of a snake problem than other places.

Pity the cats won't do anything about the possum or the raccoon...