Gimpy said:
Luckily, our cat is an excellent mouser, and she takes care of any we miss. ;D
Ours too...she knows she can trade them for "Pounce" treats :)
If you do feed birds, make sure you put the feeders well out from your house. If the feeders are too close, you will end up with mice and those that eat mice. I've had snakes on the back porch (which I don't bother, none were poisonous)
Our new house also came with resident black snake, at least 6 feet long, that lives in the rafters and crawl spaces. I came face to face with him when I was changing out the satellite dish. I was on a ladder, turned my head, and he was about 6" from my nose. He could have struck my face very easily...but he didn't. Just looked at me for 1/2 a minute, then slowly moved over to another rafter. I've since run across him several times under the house while wiring up stuff. I say "Excuse me Mr. Snake, but I need to run this cable past you" and he just watches ...not afraid, but not aggressive either.
I was raised to leave wildlife alone, not to feed them, or otherwise interfere with their lives.... but times have changed drastically since I was young. We've taken so much of their habitat, and this winter is one of the coldest on record in our area. We have raccoons and opossums living under the cabins to survive near zero temps, and I don't have the heart to lock them out. Everyone at Thornhill has at least one large dog, so it's unlikely anything will come inside, but we have all decided to share our space with a variety of critters this winter.