The Snake

It was a normal Saturday morning. I was sorting the clothes in my washing basket when I noticed a flash of bright orange underneath it. 'That's weird,' I thought to myself, 'I don't have any orange clothes...' As I picked up a towel near the bottom of the basket, I could've sworn it moved in a slithery way. Strangely, I didn't panic (probably because I assumed my imagination had gone into hyperdrive again) and instead went downstairs to seek a second opinion.

Katie: Dad, you're gonna think this is crazy, but I think there might be a snake in my room.
Daniel: Cool!
Dad: (disbelivingly) A snake. Not a belt?
Katie: I know it's not a snake, but if you could just check...

So the three of us trudged upstairs, me armed with a garden hoe (not completely sure why). Dad rummaged through the pile of washing and there it was: a 2 foot long, bright orange, hissing SNAKE!

We stood there in shock for a little while, then shut the door and went back downstairs. What were we supposed to do now? It was at this point I began to freak out...

I phoned the RSPCA, and after a few minutes of 'If you have found a stray cat, press 1. If you have found a stray dog, press 2...' I was eventually put through to somebody, who said she would pass the matter onto a local centre who would call me back. After waiting for an hour, we called back and the woman apologised and said she'd get back to us. We're still waiting for that phonecall now.

We rang the vet, who said they didn't deal with snakes.
We rang the zoo, who didn't have any 'snake specialists' available.
Eventually, we got through to the reptile centre in Colchester, who said that if we threw a towel over it and trapped it in a bucket, they would send somebody round to come and get it.

They had to be kidding.

The problem was, we just had no idea where it had come from. The RSPCA woman asked if I'd been anywhere, at which point I thought I must've brought it home in my suitcase from Spain last month, or even Lithuania last weekend... (I quickly dismissed it coming from Lithuania- even I would have noticed that, surely?!) The neighbours were out and my brother was convinced that they didn't have a snake as they had a rabbit. So we didn't have a clue if it was poisonous or not.

Two hours later, my brother tried visiting the neighbours again. It turns out that the hissing creature in my bedroom was a friendly corn snake called Wesley, who had escaped a couple of weeks ago from his cage. Because we live in a semi-detached house and I have built-in wardrobes, one of which has loose floorboards, Wesley had slithered his way up and made himself at home in my room! Our neighbour was very apologetic and asked if I wanted to hold him, at which point I very politely declined and asked if he could remove it from my house. My brother was much more keen though:

Impressive, isn't he? I still can't quite believe it happened. I'm scarred for life...