Snakes in Oz

We, in New Zealand are lucky that we have no snakes. The same can not be said of her nearest neighbour, Australia.

Below, is a recount by my nephew Andrew.

Dear All,

We had just witnessed a live 'National Geographic - Snake Catcher vs Carpet Python vs Possum' right in front of our doorstep. It was melodramatic and full on!

It started this morning when I stumbled upon a snake curling at the conner of my car porch. I didn't really realise it until it was some 0.01mm from my toe. But in order not to scare the rest of the occupants (that is my mum Rose, my wife Karen and my baby Bengy) in the house, I calmly moved the car away from the snake and tried to chase it away by splashing water but to no avail. After several attempts and we gave up. Apparently it was waiting for something big!!!!!

Being 'snakephobia' people, we really didn't have much choice but to leave the house and let the nature take its course (we had naively hoped that the snake would realise it was not welcome here and would move away.)

We reached home after several hours of shopping at the Vietnamese town nearby. We realised something amiss when the roller door jammed half way. To our horror we found a snake like creature together with a furry creature entangled to the roller door! We quickly got our neighbour to help to manually roll down the door as none of us would dare to go near!

The snake I saw this morning had caught a possum and was trying to swallow it at my roller door and when the the door rolled up, the poor fellow got stucked together with the prey. Apart from being scared, I was also calculating the $$$ I would need to spend to get rid of the snake and also to get the door fixed!

But a little while later, the snake got loose and started to swallow the prey. The entire episode was caught on camera.

We decided to get a professional snake catcher when it tried to sneak into the door drum after savouring the possum, we reckoned it might just remain there for days before the digestion was complete.

In hindsight I should have used the pole to flick it away while the snake and the prey was tangling on the roller. Anyhow the whole drama ended with a happy snake catcher with extra 100 dollars in her pocket and a poor carpet python being forcefully evicted from my car porch!


I am not sure where the snake would end up eventually Mum was worried that the catcher will release it back to the bush and it will head straight back to out house. Now she wants to pack up our things and move out of our house as fast as possible.

My Aunt Elizabeth told us to sprinkle sulphur and powdered chlorine round the house. The Chinese believe that this will repel snakes.

My Aunt Ann jokes that it is a waste to have let go of the snake. She has been to places where the outcome would be different! Snakes were destined for the pot.


Luv,

Andrew

***My sister Margaret from Kuching, Sarawak had just visited Australia, she wonder where the snake ended up ***

***
I asked an Aussie why the snake didn't look fat despite swallowing such a big possum, here is his answer: The possum becomes squashed and elongated to get down the digestive system and the stomach juice dissolves the body very quickly***