The Urban Jungle
Posted on | September 26, 2008 at 7:35 am | 6 Comments
So, imagine this. You get up in the morning to get ready for work. It’s still kinda dark out but you don’t turn on the light because your eyes need time to adjust. You head for the bathroom. You see an unfamiliar white line on the floor just inside the bathroom. You think it’s a spilled shampoo bottle or something. You reach down to touch it and it moves. What do you do?
That’s what happened to my girlfriend in her apartment yesterday morning. She turned on the light and there it was: a snake. And not a little garden snake or garter snake either. It was a white snake with tan markings, about 2.5-3 feet long, around an inch in diameter. Much to her credit, she did not scream or panic. She calmly gathered her thoughts and then tried to herd the snake out the front door, first using a disassembled clothes hanger, then some boxes, then a broom. She finally got it through the door, and then marched it down the hall and through the utility door into an outside stairwell. Then she called me. I told her she needed to take a picture, so she went back outside and the snake had already climbed the stairs. She took some pictures, and then that must’ve ruffled the snake, and it headed back down the stairwell and curled up in a corner. At that point, she had to get to work.
She worried about the snake all morning. Part of the worrying was that it would get back in the building, but mostly she was worried someone would find it and kill it. N is a naturalist and has a strict “live and let live” philosophy. She loves all wildlife and is very empathic toward animals. So, during our lunch breaks, we drove over to her apartment to see if the snake was still there. It was still at the bottom of the stairwell and was partly inside a white plastic bag.
N went in and got the clothes hanger and my medium-sized cooler, which she had been borrowing. We worked as a team and I used the hanger to lift the bag and the snake and put it in the cooler. It tried to crawl out before I could get the lid on, and I had to get it back in there. Then we drove to a local park and set it free. The picture to the right is an (unfortunately blurry) iPhone photo of the snake just after we let it loose (click to enlarge). It’s still kind of attached to the paper bag, but you can see its head up in the middle there. The pics from N’s camera are probably better, but she didn’t have time to show me and I didn’t grab the memory card.
Neither of us could stop thinking about how exotic the snake looked. I did some internet research and finally determined it was an albino corn snake. It looked exactly like the white snake in this picture here. Corn snakes are not native to this part of the country. The Wikipedia entry said that corn snakes are very popular as pets and make good ones. They are also great escape artists. N’s apartment building is in the middle of the city and there isn’t a lot of parkland around. It seems likely this snake was a pet that had gotten loose, though we didn’t entertain that hypothesis until after letting it go. I hope the little guy does okay in the wild. I feel somewhat sorry for the owner, assuming there was one, but he really should’ve kept a better lid on his pet and not let him escape to other people’s apartments.
So that’s our snake adventure. I’m so proud of my brave sweetie for dealing with the intrusion in a level-headed manner. If I had been there and had discovered the snake, I would’ve totally freaked out. I think most of you out there can relate.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: I’m having a lot of trouble accessing the Internet lately. I think my DSL modem is dying. Thankfully I have my iPhone so I won’t have to miss a day of blogging.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “collider phobia”.
Comments
6 Responses to “The Urban Jungle”
September 26th, 2008 @ 7:56 am
Whoa.
Kudos to N. for her bravery. This is some people’s version of a nightmare.
September 26th, 2008 @ 9:27 am
My wife would have abandoned all of her belongings, fled the building, and moved away!
I’m glad it was freed. I hate people keeping snakes penned up in aquariums. I don’t like the idea of hamsters being stuck in cages either, even if they have a wheel. Some critters just have to roam.
September 26th, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
The lengths some people will go to have something to blog about each day…
More seriously, next time call animal control – they’re equipped to deal with these situations humanely, and are likely to be the first place the owner will call when they notice their pet gone. If you’re worried about how they won’t keep it forever, use the time they do hold it to find someone who wants to take it, or even a snake sanctuary, then get ol’ whitey there yourself before the deadline.
I’m not sure that a park is the snake’s natural habitat.
September 26th, 2008 @ 8:24 pm
I’m not sure that a park is the snake’s natural habitat.
And a cage is?
More seriously, next time call animal control
Next time we will. That’s easy to say in hindsight or if you weren’t involved, but the expediency of the situation and the handling problems drove our approach to the situation. If we had realized it was probably a pet, that might’ve changed things. Neither of us had time to meet with animal control and show them where the snake was even if we had thought of it at the time. It may’ve not been the best approach, but I think it worked out alright and the snake will be okay in the park we dropped him off in.
September 27th, 2008 @ 4:03 am
I can’t see a snake without feeling the urge that my grandmother instilled in all of us (for purposes of this “us,” that’s her three children and me; I was sort of the 4th kid even though I was technically her grandson): to seize the nearest hoe and hack it to pieces.
However, I could never replicate the bloodcurdling scream she emitted upon sighting one of our legless reptilian friends. I think it could not only have shattered glass, it could have shattered Beverly Sills.
September 27th, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
> That’s easy to say in hindsight or if you weren’t involved,
Yeah it’s easy, you think I come here to work? If you want me to say hard stuff, I’ll get you my Paypal address.
Anyway, I didn’t mean it to come across as harshly as it might have, just as a reminder. I’ve known and worked with a number of people over the years who’d be quite upset to read that story.