image from http://www.snakesofthewhitsundays.com
For some of us, it really doesn’t matter how many times we are told that pythons are not dangerous, they always will be. In researching for this post I have seen gigantic pythons, enough to give me nightmares and others which have their mouth dislocated so that they have the whole body of a fairly large wallaby half way down its gullet! It has brought back all the reasons why I decided I would never, ever, be persuaded to have a python as a pet – never, not ever….again!
I had been on a long search, looking for answers and something I knew I could believe in without having to be indoctrinated into something mindlessly. I read voraciously and talked to many people and different groups. It was during this search that I came across some rather unusual and interesting people. It was this which led me to their property at Woodford.
For those who may not know, Woodford is a small country town north of Brisbane, Queensland. It is well known for the Woodford Folk Festival which is held after Christmas each year. Each month I would drive through Woodford, past the Woodford Correctional Centre which looked quite eerie on a foggy winters evening with the lights glowing, and around the back of the mountain to their property.
I was continually told how safe pythons were, and associated with the goddess….. and eventually I located a huge 12 foot glass shop counter, built a ‘hide’ and fixed the ‘cage’ up correctly and installed a nice two foot python. I would never call it cute or cuddly but there you are, sometimes sanity takes a break as it had done.
A few months later we saw our friends at Woodford after there had been a bad bushfire in the area. We had stayed away because of the fire and hearing that Shirley Strachan, lead singer for Skyhooks had died in a helicopter accident whilst flying over Mount Archer. I was told, with great gusto, that they had a special surprise for me, a python they had rescued from the bushfire, burns healed and needing to recover for a while before being handled too much. I couldn’t see it as it was already tied securely in a pillow case. Hmm.
After reaching home, with a little help (the pillow case was darned heavy) I managed to pour this ENORMOUS snake into its new habitat. OMG! Once in it immediately took over the hide from the little fellow. It wasn’t long before I found out it was not a happy camper at all. It did not appreciate being ‘rescued’ nor being kept in a large, safe ‘prison’.
Feeding snakes is not nice. Feeding large angry snakes is very unpleasant. At first it lunged violently towards its food (rats) and went back into its corner. However it very quickly decided the rats were not good enough and began to launch itself towards the hand that fed it! Things were getting out of hand rapidly.
image from http://www.crocodilejoes.com
The next episode, after being attacked for a week was the cage cleaning. The snakes had to be removed from the cage so that it was easier to clean it out. Usually this was not a problem. The little fellow had always enjoyed being held whilst this happened, but Snarly Charley had made him a teeny meany and very unruly. The big fellow had to come out. It was too dangerous to put your hands in whilst he was there…. I had no intention of being dinner!
Calling on help my friend grabbed the python whilst I started to clean the cage. At the sound of a startled grunt I looked up to a scary sight. My friend had a bad arm, one elbow frozen, so had only one really good arm. Needless to say, Snarly Charley had wrapped his strong body around his good arm and he was trying to fend off the lunges from Snarly Charley by trying to hold behind his head with his bad arm. His arm was a strange shade of purple and so was his face. I had to drop everything and start to unwind this strong and very angry reptile from around his arm. We were both puffing and panting and purple in the face by the time he was pushed back into the cage.
“That’s it” I screeched, “No More, It Goes Tomorrow!”
So the next day we gingerly approached the cage. Charley had finally deigned to eat a rat and I hoped he would be a little calmer. I guess it worked because we managed to get him into a pillow case without losing any fingers or being attacked. Onto the back seat and off we went for a drive into the bush.
Finding a nice shady spot amongst the trees and away from any people or houses we carefully tipped Snarly Charley onto the ground. I did say gently too, didn’t I? Breathing a sigh of relief as the last of his body left the pillow case I slowly started to walk back up the trail towards where the car was parked.
image from http://www.thesun.co.uk
Hearing a rustling behind me I looked over my shoulder to see a sight which almost made my blood curdle. Here was Snarly Charley moving faster than I would have believed possible, charging up the track towards me. He did not look happy at being released. He did not look happy at no longer being in a pillow case or a cage. He did not look happy at all. He looked like he was seeing his next meal walking away from him and he was going to do something about that.
With visions of snakes eating animals whole, even if they weren’t as big as I was, I believed he was going to try to have me for his celebratory dinner. I felt very small at that moment and none too sure about the next five minutes. I’m not ashamed to say I turned tail and ran. I didn’t stop until I reached the car, grabbing the door handle and almost falling inside.
I didn’t want to check to see if it was still following me, I didn’t even care at that moment where it was. I was leaving and never again would a snake be in my house. Never!
Taking off with unseemly haste I drove away. Fortunately my friend had already reached the car before me…. I’m not saying he was a chicken but he wasn’t taking any chances either.
I never saw Snarly Charley ever again and his friend was sold to a pet store. All snake paraphernalia was removed with a vow to never darken my doors again….. and they haven’t.
That old saying from Peter Pan…. “Never smile at a crocodile, don’t be taken in by his welcome grin”…. well for me that goes for charming pythons as well.
If you’re a snake lover, that’s nice, but if you’re not, that;s ok too.
Cheers Susan x
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- Brown Snakes, Sheep and Stockwhips. (owlsandorchids.com)
‘As nasty as a bag of snakes’ takes on a whole new meaning!
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Snakes on a Plane – or Snakes in a Car, I was terrified the damned thing would get out and attack me in the car! Never again!!
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Ahh, the perils of pythons. I had a small python given to me when I was relieving at Lowood police station. He was about 5 feet long, hungry and yet beautiful, there’s a cautionary tale in there somewhere. I made a trip home to Ipswich and placed him in a wicker laundry basket, threw a dead mouse in and stuck the lid on. Okay Love, it’ll be fine until I get back just get a mouse from the pet shop and drop it in. Hmm that went over well. I released him into the bush. Saw a python crossing Old south pine road, in Bunyaville back in 1963 (it was all scrub then) its tail was in the bush on one side and its head in the bush on the other. It was a single lane bitumen road with a metre of gravel on each side. Not a small snake. I’m sorry but I had to laugh at the picture you painted of your snake releasing methods (I would have tossed it out on the go). It looked like a case of stand aside and let someone run who can run.
Cheers
Laurie.
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Too true Laurie,
If I’d had any sense I would have tossed the menace out the window but I still had some misplaced ideas that the “poor thing” was just being what it was, a wild creature. Let’s say that was the last thing on my mind by the time my heart had returned to a normal rhythm. Scarred for life! I’ve seen some wicked photos of snakes recently, just to get a good one to go on the post – brought back more memories than I banked on. Just goes to show they get their own back eventually! I would have taken it very amiss if I’d been told to drop a mouse into a wicker basket, snake or no. Knowing my luck the damn thing would have leaped out and ran up my arm! But then, that’s another story.
The more we chat, the more convinced I am that we have some mutual acquaintances. Funny how life turns out – we’ll have to see if some of our tales jog the memory or not. 🙂
Cheers
Susan
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Yes it’s amazing how we get these notions about animals, ‘ah the poor wee thing’ can soon change to ‘WTF’ in an instance. The worse thing would be the mouse getting up by your face and peeing in your eye, now that can send you blind. I would say without a doubt we have some common acquaintances. look forward to the memory jogging.
Cheers
Laurie.
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