To add a little to what Brian said about defining "herp". Herp comes from the greek word "herpeton" meaning to creep, crawl or slither on ones belly.
Herpeculture means to breed and raise herps
Herpetology is the study of herps or reptiles/amphibians
Herper is someone who catches and/or keeps herps as a hobby
interestingly, the word Herpes also came from the same greek word describing how the virus creeps along the nerves of an infected person's body.
If the snake in the kennel was light with dark black blotches and shiney....I'm thinking eastern hognosed snake...or juvinile black ratsnake....they are usually greyish though with blackish splotches till they mature and turn all black. In your area....most likely a hognosed from your description...they are completely harmless to humans. Only thing is...they eat toads almost exclusive and wouldn't be attracted to rodents....so the dog food theory would be out there...alot of toads around the area? Did it look anything like this?
Heterodon platirhinos If so...it's a hognosed....cute lil things. They are rearfanged and mildly venomous but very mild and rear fangs are for injected toads as they are swallowed, not for defense. Bites are rare and envenomations from bites are close to non-existant. I can't stress just how harmless they are enough.
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