I have already chronicled the sad story about my long and sorted set of squirrel problems. This year, in Saint Louis a squirrel attacked our RAV4, doing a total of thirteen grand in automotive damage. So, imagine my surprise and even pleasure when yesterday I spied this little fella sticking his head out from beneath our car’s hood. In my mind snakes are the ultimate in squirrel deterrence. There are plenty of squirrels that live around the cabin, but they are primarily interested in getting into the cabin and have never bothered the cars around here, but then I got to thinking. What attracted this snake first anyway. Investigating, I lifted the hood, but saw no telltale signs of rodent nesting going on. I did get a start though. The car for some unknown reason decided then to emit a rattling sound. Yes, just like a rattlesnake might. I saw the component that was causing the noise and it definitely was not snake related, but it did give me a fright. I knew that the snake that I had seen was a nonpoisonous garter snake, but intellectualizing and experiencing something is not always the same thing.