I was outside this morning and, long story short, there was a snake there. About 2-3 feet long (difficult to get a good measurement since it was doing a good job at staying curled up), had a similar coloration to this snake http://www.kingsnake.com/suncoastherpsociety/cotton7.JPG and a solid white belly. (Okay, sure, I didn't see the ENTIRE underside of the snake, but I got to see enough of it to see that it was a solid white.)

About the inside of it's mouth, its head was little and, for me, the inside of one snake's mouth is the same as the rest and I do NOT want to get ANYwhere near it.

I don't know much about snakes on the by and whole, so I have no idea if this was a rattler, a water moccasin, or what.

What made this all the more curious is that it was skaing the end of it's tail like a rattler (though I couldn't see any rattle back there (then again, it's not like I really leaned down and took a close nose to tail tip look at it) and I could hear a quiet hissing?rattling? (definately no ta typical hiss, so that's why I think it might've been rattling?), and twice it tried biting the end of the really long stick I was using to pick it up and toss it to the back of the yard. (Whereas when I've used a stick to handle a rat snake, they don't get all defensive and pissy like that. They just curl up into a coil like they're saying 'please leave me alone! Just leave me alone!!'.

Mind you, as snippy as it was acting, I had to give it a couple good swats across the head. (I know, that was mean.) But that seemed to distract it enough with pain that it did it's defensive curl up into as much of a coil as possible mode, letting me much easier scoop it up with the stick and carry it to the back of the yard.

I didn't think anything of it in the moment, to be honest. I've crossed paths with a garder snake as well as 3 rat snakes over the years, but what got my attention with this one is that, several years back, I rescued a little baby snake from the pool. It was acting just like this one, shaking the end of it's tail and trying to bite the stick I was using to lift it away with.

So, although I know I should just let this rest, it bothers me that I don't know what snake it was. (Not like it'll make any difference now, but still.)