We came upon this confrontation in the middle of a country road. They were so intent on each other they completely ignored our car. We watched them for several minutes before having to move on. It was really just a lot of bluffing, it was a harmless garter snake, and the young farm cat was probably just curious. We saw the cat a couple days later, with at least eight of its nine lives left. The road was clean, so the snake was probably OK too.