Snake surprise

This morning the boys and I went to our front porch to water some plants. As I'm about to water the top plant on my plant stand next to the front door I see this. Look closely at the right side of the pot.
Now do you see it?
See it's little head from this angle? It just didn't want to let go and get down from it's perch on the plant stand. I keep trying to scoot the stand away from the wall and scare him down with the tip of the shovel that was still on the porch from the last time we worked in the yard.

I finally pestered it enough (with my shovel) to get it to slide down. This picture makes it look big as it slithered off the porch but it wasn't.
When it finally got off the porch to try to escape I whacked it's head off with my shovel. (Sorry if there are any snake lovers out there but I'm not one of them.)
See, it's not all that big. The boys thought it was pretty cool how it kept moving around and opening and closing it's mouth while it was dying. When I couldn't stand looking at it anymore I tossed it into the uncleared side yard where I'm sure something will gobble it up. All in all the snake was probably only about 10-12 inches long. I have no idea what kind it is - all snakes are scary to me and must die. I'm only glad it wasn't bigger because I'm not sure I could handle a big one by myself without crying and/or wetting my pants.