Snake In Starbucks Bathroom Photographed By Man And Wife
![Texas Rat Snake](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/258004/texas-rat-snake.jpg?w=600&f=e19f4fb8c60b13ed67ff08a7240631ad)
A man sees a snake in a bathroom.
A man sees a snake in a Starbucks bathroom.
A man sees a snake in a San Antonio Starbucks bathroom.
Phew! Feel better now? Somehow, the Texas detail locks the entire story safely into place... at least for those of us who don’t live in a state known for cowboy boots, worn for good reason.
Huffington Post reports that Bruce Ahlswede, who visited the coffee emporium after a business meeting, thought he saw a toy snake draped over the bowl.
"I looked down and looked at the toilet and I [saw] this snake laying across the toilet," Ahlswede told San Antonio station KSAT. After seeing it move, he immediately left the scene to tell an employee. "So we went back in and watched it as it slithered back and around and down underneath the rim of the bowl and right inside."
Starbucks dutifully contacted animal control, which found no more snakes upon conducting its inspection. Before that happened, though, Michele Ahlswede snapped a quick photo of what is apparently a Texas rat snake, according to the Huffington Post.
The non-venomous Texas rat snake eats a variety of rodents, small rabbits, bats, bird eggs, small birds, and occasionally lizards, according to Austin Reptile Service. Active in early April through early November, it hunts in the daytime, though it becomes nocturnal in hot weather. Rat snakes kill their prey by constriction. Texas Parks & Wildlife counts 68 species of snakes in its state, for a total of 113 species and subspecies, of which less than 15 percent are venomous.