The day before, a landscaper reported seeing a large rattlesnake in this Phoenix backyard. When Marissa arrived, she was greeted by a wall of thick green vegetation and knew immediately that finding anything hiding in there was going to be a project.

She started beneath a Lantana where the landscaper had last seen the rattlesnake and found a snake, just not the one she was looking for. Tucked underneath was this Kingsnake.

After a thorough search, it was the only snake Marissa found, and the homeowner was happy to let the Kingsnake stay. That doesn’t necessarily mean the original rattlesnake sighting was wrong. With dense vegetation throughout the yard and a desert mountainside directly across the street, this was a pretty good place for a rattlesnake to disappear.