Saturday sump pump and snake drama

Our sump pump hasn't been functioning properly lately due to a clog somewhere in the pipe that leads out to the street, through the neighbor's yard. It rained the entire day on Friday, and the sump pump well was ready to overflow this morning. So, after getting permission from the neighbors to dig up the pipe and determine the problem, Sunny discovered that the pipe was indeed clogged with rocks and dirt, thanks to its improper installation. Once he removed the clog and switched on the pump, hundreds of gallons of water pumped out over the next few hours. More on this later; it will take some work to install a pop-up drain in the yard to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, I sanded and re-stained the front porch steps, which were looking scratched and scuffed and generally unappealing. They look much better now.
When I was done, we were chatting on the porch and Sunny went down to trim the grass around the flowerbed and discovered a SNAKE! WTF. It was about 10 inches long (see picture). We are still trying to figure out what kind of snake it was using this handy "snakes of missouri" guide