I’m assuming he wasn’t poisonous?
My best friend who lives in Phoenix, once found a rattlesnake curled up in a hose on her porch, and she was worried it would bite someone. So she leaned over the little porch wall and chopped his head off. I don’t know if I could be that brave.
@Ziacat he was a harmless black snake, so I caught him and took him to the woods. Have done my share of chopping heads for the poisonous ones, though!
Chased the snake for 30 minutes? Lifetime city dweller - I would have moved.
Garter snakes out here are a plus in that they control field mice. I normally see one every summer somewhere on the property, often just sunning on the walkway or in the gardens. I’d be pretty freaked seeing something stockier than the garter, though.
There are rattlesnakes around here, I’ve only seen dead snakes (run over by cars). but if one ventures into the canyons for a walk you are warned at the trailheads to watch for rattlers. I stay on sidewalks and from the parking lot to the beach for my walks…city dweller.
@Khmetalwork LOL! That may have been easier.
I had to get him out of my garage. He kept going under shelves and behind stuff and was an adept hider! I figured it would be worse to step on him in the dark or sit on him in the seat of my car some day down the road and give myself a heart attack.
@chicfarmer Critter control is exactly why we live and let live around here. Otherwise we’d be overrun with all manner of rodents and stuff worse than the occasional snake. The snakes are prolific here and they’re everywhere… doesn’t help that we have a creek in the yard and back up to woods. You just don’t go sticking your hands under plants or in concealed places without checking first. Lifelong country girl here and although I have a healthy respect for them, they generally make good neighbors. 
This beauty was hanging out on the trail years ago. It did not care that myself and 2 kids and 2 dogs were near.
I was glancing back at this thread. A house in a dry river bed sounds a bit scary! No flash floods I’m assuming?
The river was the Los Angeles River which had been made into a huge cement channel many decades before. Evidently it meandered quite a bit in it natural state as I was about a half mile from it. In the 1930s it flooded badly and many died. This the reason for the cement channel.
Your cat photo looks scarily like the North side of my house 
That makes sense. I was picturing the dry river beds I’ve seen in AZ, NM, and UT that come insanely to life with storms.
Interesting. It’s our neighbor’s house, unless you’re our neighbor and have a cat named Nigel!
Noop, although my sisters dachshund is named Nigel, but she lives up on San Juan Island in Washington 
Well that settles it, when I get another cat, his name will be Nigel.
He’s an outdoor cat (neighbor’s husband is allergic) that they adopted. I give him treats when he visits, so I often hear myself saying, “Nigel dropped by today.” There is another cat around with a collar that says Gary. 
My cat is Mosi… Navajo for “cat”