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Off topic "rescue"

Maki

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I found a note on my door today from someone in my neighborhood who found a snake in the street and wanted me to take it off his hands. I keep a low profile about my snakes, but it appears that a contractor who was working on my house this summer was giving tours in my absence. (But that's another story.) Although afraid of the animal, this man saved it from another neighbor who saw it in the street and was going to kill it. He kept it in a garbage can until I arrived.

It was a somewhat thin gopher snake that I placed in a bag. I was going to release it tonight, but it is so cold that I thought the snake would have a hard time locating a good place to shelter for the night. I didn't want it anywhere near my BPs so it is with a heat pack in a snake bag in the bathroom for now. I'm planning on releasing it in the canyon tomorrow when it is warmer. At least it was a good opportunity to educate people about the benefit of having this snake around to control the rodent population.

Thanks for letting me share,
Maki
 
off topic

I found a note on my door today from someone in my neighborhood who found a snake in the street and wanted me to take it off his hands. I keep a low profile about my snakes, but it appears that a contractor who was working on my house this summer was giving tours in my absence. (But that's another story.) Although afraid of the animal, this man saved it from another neighbor who saw it in the street and was going to kill it. He kept it in a garbage can until I arrived.

It was a somewhat thin gopher snake that I placed in a bag. I was going to release it tonight, but it is so cold that I thought the snake would have a hard time locating a good place to shelter for the night. I didn't want it anywhere near my BPs so it is with a heat pack in a snake bag in the bathroom for now. I'm planning on releasing it in the canyon tomorrow when it is warmer. At least it was a good opportunity to educate people about the benefit of having this snake around to control the rodent population.

Thanks for letting me share,
Maki

First I want to say THANK YOU for being there to be the one to do the educating of your neighbors!
Second, I want to hear about the contractor & what happened there! I can not imagine what I would do in that situation. Fire him? Have him fired? File a police report (but on what?)...so, come on, dish the story up!
 
First I want to say THANK YOU for being there to be the one to do the educating of your neighbors!
Second, I want to hear about the contractor & what happened there! I can not imagine what I would do in that situation. Fire him? Have him fired? File a police report (but on what?)...so, come on, dish the story up!

Well, Troi, I hope to have a chance to speak with him next week to get his story. This is a contractor who has worked for us in the past and has done tons of work in our neighborhood over the years. He's a really nice person that does excellent work, so I don't think he meant anything malicious. In the fall, we did a big remodel. I knew that he was telling the subcontractors about my snakes because occasionally one of them would ask me about them. I also know other homeowners with the same model as ours were interested in seeing what we'd done and I was open to arranging to let them see inside.

At this point, I do not know what date this neighbor was here or the circumstances under which he entered my home. (I had not met him prior to his capturing the gopher snake.) I also do not know who else, other than the workers, have been inside. I do feel that I should have been informed. It bothers me that my two children were home with the nanny at the time and, on a less serious level, that I do not know how messy my house was then. It also bothers me that issues unrelated to the remodel were disclosed, such as the snakes. I keep a low profile about my snakes for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to protect them from people with a fear of or lack of knowledge about snakes who could view them negatively.

Anyway, I hope in the end we can say that all is well that ends well. I think that is true for the gopher snake that I released to the canyon behind my house the next morning.

Thanks for asking,
Maki
 
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