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Old 04-05-2004, 04:51 AM   #1
Clay Davenport
Python puts a squeeze on her owner - Boston

Another bit of wonderful sensationalized press thanks to someone who doesn't need to keep snakes. Calling the cops.... geez.
Take note of the burm in it's "cage" in the picture. A bird cage complete with perches.

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A Burmese python went wild yesterday, wrapping up its owner and chomping down on her wrist before a pair of cautious Boston police officers helped pry the 7-foot reptile off her body.

``Man, I didn't know snakes could bite like that,'' said the python's owner, Wanda Nunes, 43. ``It really hurt. And every time I tried to pry her off or move, she just got tighter around my leg. It was like that for 20 minutes until the police arrived. I was beginning to lose feeling in my arm.''

By the time officers Jon Harber and Philip Bliss pulled up to her Dudley Street apartment at 10:30 a.m., Nunes was on her knees with one end of ``Moma'' clamped onto her left arm and the other end in a stranglehold on her leg.

Harber and Bliss pried off the 8-pound snake and put her back in her cage.

Nunes said she had brought Moma her favorite snack - two rats - yesterday morning and was preparing to clean out her cage before letting her dine.

``She must have smelled the rats because she reached back and lunged for my arm,'' Nunes said. ``Before I knew it, she was all wrapped around me.''

Royal, Nunes' 13-year-old son, tried to pull Moma off Momma, but couldn't, so he called police.

Nunes said she bought Moma for Royal two years ago because he liked garden snakes, but since that time ownership has changed hands and now Nunes is the primary caretaker of the exotic reptile.

Aside from the snake's biting Nunes on the way home from the pet store, Moma has never been hostile, she said.

Nunes said she has no hard feelings toward her pet and won't be shy about sticking her arm out again for Moma to slither up for a walk through the neighborhood.

The snake, who loves warm baths and three rats every three weeks, is a beloved member of the family.

Nunes even asked to feed Moma the two rats before being taken to the hospital, where she was treated and released.

``The police wanted to put her down, but I begged them not to,'' Nunes said.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRe...articleid=3220