Last night Maddie and Chris had both gone to bed after their tiring work filled days. I was about to go into the toilet, (door was shut) - when I noticed a long tail hanging out under the doorway. Now we live in a semi tropical zone, and 'tropical nature critters' are a part of our life - I am constantly being irritated by geckos (lizards) which pop out of cupboards, or crawl out from their hiding places behind curtains or wall hangings--harmless but messy little things. Some of them can get to be quite large--so my mind was thinking, looking at this tail under the toilet door--is this another type of lizard?
I actually got down on my hands and knees and peered under the door to see if I could determine what it was. Yep! It was a snake!
I quickly went down to our bedroom, and rudely woke up Chris by opening the door loudly and saying urgently; "Please wake up and hurry--there's a snake upstairs!" Chris being who he is, jumped up fairly quickly to that plea, came upstairs and looked at the tail. We couldn't decide what to do--how to attack the snake, not really knowing its size or breed. So Chris went to get a spade as a weapon, in case it was poisonous, and I kept a watchful eye on it. We have had taipans and king brown snakes in our home in the past, so we are always cautious around them.
Suddenly the snake started to move, and was leaving the toilet room, and moving towards the bathroom. I yelled out to Chris to hurry as snakes move really quickly. He got back in time to see it entering the bathroom, and had an attempt at trying to stop it with the spade--but perhaps missed. Anyway, the snake vanished.
The light switch for the bathroom is further into the bathroom, and in the dark we were hesitant to venture further--so I was madly scrambling for torches (flashlights). Once we had them, and could venture in and turn on the lights, the snake was no where to be found. Bother! Now, I'm not going to go to bed now with a snake on the prowl, so the night loomed ahead.....
We left lights on and walked away, hoping it would re-appear soon, and after about 20 minutes it did. I noticed it wrapped behind the bathroom's small rubbish bin. I called out to Chris, who was by now sitting, reading, and waiting in another room, and he quickly arrived with Spade. It was only a small snake--only about a foot long--still thinnish, and had spotted markings on its back--we knew it had to be a python--not poisonous. So eventually Chris managed to get it onto the spade, and I manuevered a large rubbish bag around the spade end and we rescued it. We hate to ever kill what can't really harm us.
Chris at about midnight walked the bag and snake about midway down our 1/2 kilometre track and released it.
I think the snake was even more scared than we had been! What a night!
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