Sounds like you had a Puget (Thamnophis sirtalis pickeringii). Possibly a young one. Our females are about 32in. and the males aren't too far behind. They can be quite temperamental at times. We have 3 and another that belongs to Chantel (kibakiba) as soon as I get to her place to give it to her. They seem to like fish the most. We feed ours talapia and salmon. They like worms and pinkies too, just not as much. I think you would really love a Northwestern though. They don't get very big usually right around 24in for the females and a little smaller for the males. They all seem to have very sweet personalities and most adapt to captivity relatively quickly. Once you get them eating they are piggies. I think they are really underrated, probably because they don't get huge like the other garter species and breeding is difficult to predict. If you want, next week on one of my days off, we can get together and go snake hunting. I know a wonderful place for NWs.