Looks a lot like the red-bellied water snake, check out this pic of one:
http://www.kostich.com/red-bellied%20water%20snake.jpg
....but if your friend's in Houston, that may be a bit outside or on the edge
of its range.

Tim C.

"Ann in Houston" wrote in message
. com...
I TOLD you it was a clear pic! Ha Ha! When I first saw the first one, he
blended in somehow with the rest of the filter, and then when I realized I
was looking right at him, it really scared me too. And I'm across the
country - and the snake is long gone! She says she strongly suspects
snake-canoodling in the filter. I told her it was good she intervened
before egg laying time. When this thread turns up on Google, I'll send
her
the link.





"Ka30P" wrote in message
...

Good Lord!!!!!!

I'll answer your question when I stop running.

Dang.

Looks like a garter snake.
Stripes down the side of the body, slender head
but if it was in MY pond I'd run to B&N (I'd probably reach it in 2
minutes,
flat out) and buy a book about snakes in my state or region. Then I'd ID
the
the thing for sure. I would not rely on internet 'experts' like me ;-)
Then I'd call in the air force and nuke the pond...
Okay, not really but that first picture almost did me in...!!!!!!





kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A