Trials and Tribulations of a Flute Philanderer! 
This is just a little irrelevant story.
Yesterday as I went out to get pictures of the J.W. Pepper flute previously listed today. The flute case includes the original keys (though the hasp of the lock has been torn out), well I carelessly pitched the keys onto the picnic table on our deck and they fell through a gap in the table and subsequently through the crack in the deck planks.
Well I went ahead and took the pictures with out the keys and when I was done I went to fetch the keys. To get under our deck I have to lift-up the lattice (hinged for this purpose) at one end and scurry under. Well when I did, I found myself face to face with a 5-feet long black Rat Snake! She had intertwined herself with the lattice and was lifted along with it. Iām not afraid of snakes, but Iāve never encountered one in our yard before and was unprepared for our chance meeting. I apologized and lowered the lattice, went for my camera and took her picture, then left her in peace. I believe she was pregnant and looking for a safe place to lay her eggs. I waited till she slipped away and then retrieved the keys.
I faced one in my garage once when I lived in Georgia. This one thought that it was a rattle snake. It struck at me a couple of times when I tried to get it out of the garage. A friend of mine lived on black snake road. I think that they are endangered.
They, like corn snakes get rid of the varmin like rats and mice.
I am glad that you let her be.
Generally Rat Snakes have a bad disposition (donāt make good pets), but this one was rather slow and docile!
True Story!
When I was young my best friend caught a Black Rat Snake that was also about 5-feet long. He took it into his house to show his mother. She being unimpressed replied with a typical āYou get that out of here before it gets loose!ā My buddy just to show his (dis-) respect for such a comment went to kiss the snake on the head in front of his mother. Well the snake squirmed and turned and clamped onto the middle of his upper lip and wouldnāt let go. So now he was running around the house yelling with the snake hanging off his lip (he was holding the coils of the snake, or else he would have a rather funny speech impediment to this day). Finally his father went to the garage and came back with a set of needle-nose pliers and inserted them in the jaw of the snake and the pulled them and the snakeās mouth open.
For a week my best friend looked like he had a āpull-tabā (Insert Thumb Here) on his upper lip!
Our first home was a wee little 700 square foot ācottageā in SW Virginia with a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was vacant a 6 months or so before we bought it due to remodeling after a fire, and hence had become home to some mice who loved to scurry across the attic/ceiling at 2 am in the morning. Our first Saturday morning in the house, we awoke to two 6 foot black snakes hanging down from the overhang just outside the front door, with quite fat bellies. Like SillyDill, we werenāt expecting THAT sight, but were grateful for the mouse control, although I think Iād rather have a cat for that.