Name That Snake

I hate snakes. They give me the creeps. So last night, after our friends left I was enjoying my nightly glass of apple juice while Keith straightened up the living room and the dogs were going absolutely bonkers outside. I thought they were barking at the dog in the other yard - so I stuck my head out the door and hollered at them to come inside. Chuy made a huge production of going all the way around the rock pit to come inside, while Whitey Tighty and Shea barked furiously at something in the rocks. Yelling at Keith to come get his children who would not listen to me, I started to go outside - then I saw it. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew it was alive, it was wild and sure didn't belong in my yard! Keith was right behind me, and he quickly realized it was a snake. WT was irate! I'd never heard him bark that much! It took about 3 minutes to get him inside, then Keith attacked the snake with the only tool we had handy - a metal rake! ha! Ever try to cut off a snakes head with a metal rake in a rock pit? It isn't easy. I went and got a shovel, and Keith eventually won the battle and the snake lost. I think it is just a grass snake - but I don't know and I'm certainly not going to go look all over the internet trying to compare pictures of snakes - talk about nightmares! So, I took pictures, and maybe you guys can tell me what kind of snake this is....beware - these aren't pretty!

I think that the snake was at least two feet long. See our box? How do you dispose of a dead snake when you live in the city limits? Why, you put it in two grocery bags, tied tight (he could come back to life you know) and put those inside a box, fasten the box closed and throw it in the outside trash bin. Keith will have to take the trash out this week!


Okay - if you aren't much for snakes or blood - stop looking now. We were trying to get a picture of the coloring of the snake - he had black and yellow on him. His underside was solid white/cream.

I took this picture for my Grandma - she always says you can tell if a snake is poisonous by the shape of it's head. Well - the head is kind of demolished, but if you look really close, you can see that his face was rounded, not pointed. The head is in the top part of the picture laying on top of it's body. I couldn't remember if she said rounded was good or bad.

Okay - so what kind of snake is this?! Any guesses?