im a little tender hearted too. i love all animals. even have a couple sweetheart rats that are strictly pets. lol i felt bad for the little guy, but really i don't think he was conscious. he was knocked out enough for my snake to think he was dead and not put up a fight. i feed live because it works better for me. less waste if food is refused and i see an all around better feeding response from my snakes.
it didn't strike at all. the rat went to crawl over that part of the snake's body and it just wrapped it up real quick without striking. and i'm assuming it coiled it until it thought it was dead, and then after starting to eat it the rat kinda "came back to life," or rather, started breathing again.