An Unwelcome Intruder

So much has happened since my last post (yeah, it’s been a while!) that it’s difficult to choose a story with which to break the “blogging drought”. Whilst this story certainly does not fit in the “only in the Philippines” category, it is nevertheless probably not a common scenario for most of my readers, so I thought I would tell it to you…

A few weeks ago, we had a scheduled all-day power outage in our area. We have these from time to time, presumably to enable maintenance work to be done. It was hot inside my house without fans and it was also somewhat dark, so I decided to sit outside to eat my lunch. I doubt it was actually any cooler outside, but at least there was a breeze.

I grabbed my lunch and went and sat on the plastic chair just outside my front door to eat it. “My” cats (street cats who aren’t technically mine but are essentially my pets) obviously also thought that lunch was a good idea, so they gathered around and started eating their food which was under my chair.

Suddenly, behind one of the cats, I noticed something sticking out of a tiny little hole in the wall (a hole that, up until that point, I didn’t even know existed). A SNAKE was coming out of my wall!!

As it ventured out, it stuck out its tongue and evidently sensed danger (the presence of one human and five cats!). Before I could even process what was happening, it turned and slithered right under the front door, straight into my house!

After watching it slither across my dining room floor for a few seconds, I propped open the door and unleashed my weapon of choice – the cats! I was really hoping one of them would take care of it for me (at least drive it out of the house, if not kill it) so that I didn’t have to deal with it. I had no idea what type of snake it was at that stage, so I was not keen on getting too close to it.

Unfortunately, my Plan A failed to achieve the desired result. It turns out that the cats were rather wary of the snake too. One of them followed it across the room until it disappeared under the cabinet, but then she lost interest. It was pretty obvious that I would have to come up with a Plan B.

I soon realized that the cats were actually my ONLY useful weapon, so I walked down to my friends’ house to get help (just one more reason why I’m glad to have friends living close by!). They didn’t really have any suitable snake-killing implements at their house either, so we borrowed a shovel from some nearby workmen then walked back to my place.

In order to kill the snake, the first thing we had to do was locate it again (and when I say “we”, I mean my friend Cole who came to rescue me, the damsel-in-distress). This took a while. Of course it didn’t help that it was dark inside my house. The cat was actually somewhat helpful this time, as her gaze narrowed down the direction of the search.

In the end, Cole found the snake in the bathroom (the darkest room in the house, of course!) and annihilated it with the shovel. He then took it out and showed it to the group of curious neighbours who had, by this stage, gathered outside.

The neighbours didn’t know any more than we did about what type of snake it was, but after some research, I’m now fairly certain that it was a red-tailed green rat snake (apparently quite harmless). If I were to come across another one in my garden, I would leave it in peace. If, however, one would be so bold as to trespass inside my house again, I may not be so merciful!

I wish I could say that this was the first time I’ve had a snake inside my house, but unfortunately that is not the case. I think the count is currently at three (the last two were in Paraguay). But while it may not be the first time, I can always hope that it will be last!!