Check out these cat image images:
20100310 - cats vs. snake #4 - GEDC1625 - Lemonjello, triumphant
Image by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)
Lemonjello poses with his fresh kill, proud that he accomplished something other than getting fatter.
Also another good example of the shitty red lines our camera likes to put on everything.
Lemonjello the cat, black racer snake.
upstairs, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
March 10, 2010.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: Cats caught another snake! This is the 4th time we've found a snake in our house. Ahh, the joys of living next to a creek in a 60 year old house.
I thought it was a toy. Then it moved. But that was the last time. It's jaw was damaged by Lemonjello, apparently. About 14in long, 0.8cm thick.
Tried to identify with: fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/identification-keys/id-keys-snakes/vir...
Round eyes, no heat sensing pit.
I thought it might be an Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos), but then I decided its nose wasn't upturned enough, not like in the pictures I saw.
Its scales were not keeled, so I had to check for a Preocular scale. None were present.
The next step is to count the mid-body scale rows. Are they = 19? They were definitely over 19 -- possibly closer to 20-23.
That led me to the next page, which asks if the dorsum [top] is uniformly black and blue, or has blotches or crossbands. This one was the latter.
Now I had to check if the anal plate was a single or a double. This is easy, because single anal plates have divided subcaudal (below the butthole) scales, while double anal plates have undivided subcaudal scales. So it's really hard to do this step incorrectly. This guy had a single anal plate & divided subcaudal scales.
The next step, fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/identification-keys/id-keys-snakes/sna..., has us lookin at the dorsum again.
Unfortunately, this page gave 2 choices.. Neither of which applies to my snake!
So I had to go back a couple steps, to the one asking if the dorsum is uniformly black and blue - fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/identification-keys/id-keys-snakes/sna... ... This page shows a picture of a juvenile black racer, which actually is NOT uniformly black and blue. It's markings seemed very much like our snake, which was also a juvenile. Apparently they don't lose their patterns until they get about 12 inches long -- and this one was barely longer (14 inches, but still a baby).
Found other juvenile black racer pictures on Google Images, such as this one: www.snake-removal.com/pix/snake025.jpg
Looked for wikipedia page, found en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coluber_constrictor , which is for eastern racers in general. There's no wikipedia page for the Black Racer subspecies, unfortunately.
This page told me more about black racers: www.uga.edu/srelherp/snakes/colcon.htm ... They like edge habitats, and my house's backyard is the epitome of edge habitats.
So... I must conclude, tentatively, that this was a juvenile black racer.
Black Cat Comics # 1, 1947...Animated!
Image by Terry McCombs
I animated the cover of Black Cat Comics #1, to see the animation you will have to look at the image full size.
Bangsar House Cat
Image by shutupyourface
Canon 20D with Hasselblad Carl Zeiss 80mm F2.8 T* CF lens.
Tried a few crops of the previous image. I love the DOF and bokeh from this lens.
