Rabbits Anyone?

A few weekends ago I was called by a friend that lives near me to get ready and he was going to come pick me up. He didn’t tell me why but said it was urgent. I was waiting outside for himwhen he arrived, as I was eager to know what was so urgent.

He said that a house across the way had a little problem he needed to contend with. I asked him why he needed my help and he said he just wanted me not to be scared anymore. I knew this was a bad sign! As we continued along he told me that the little girl that lived in the house across the way went to go feed her bunnies in the coup behind their house. She noticed they weren’t moving and crawled into the cage to investigate. It was then that she saw a black snake pop up from the corner. She backed away without turning (apparently what you are suppose to do) and ran into the house to tell her parents.

Her parents called Tian and Tian called me to come with him. My initial thought was, wow, next time someone says it is urgent it would be smart to get more information before I volunteer to go with them – especially in this place. You never know what is going to happen. They have bigger and badder everything here! They have cockroaches the size of phones and flying ants the size of cockroaches – I mean really!

As we pulled up to the girl’s house they were waiting for us outside. They walked us over to the rabbit coup and Tian went inside with his shovel to try and find the snake. I wasn’t stupid enough to follow him that time around. I thought I would make friends safely outside with the family. Although I must admit I was very aware of my surroundings and was planning every move if I did see a snake.

Tian was in the coup for a good 30mins before he came out with nothing. He then called some friends and in 5mins the reptile control people were there. I thought that was odd considering everything around me is at least a 20 minute drive. The reptile people got out and went in with their shovels, they seemed more excited than they should be to catch a snake. Within 10 minutes they found what they were looking for.

One of the reptile guys carried out the snake with one finger positioned firmly on top of its head and the other under it mouth. They were all laughing and taking pictures. Tian was so excited the snake measured 2.5 meters long! I must have had a look of panic on my face as the reptile guy informed me that they hadn’t caught one of these black mambos in the area for months! My mouth dropped– a black mamba - awesome, great, just my luck. I had been warned several times about the danger of these snakes and here I was right in front of it. They were laughing at me telling me I had nothing to worry about and they started listing over 20 other animals that are more dangerous in this area that I actually should be scared of …..awesome…….doesn’t that always make a girl feel better (the picture on the right is not the snake they caught that day but a different cobra snake I encountered - another story for another day. I didn't have my camera to capture the black mamba unfortunately.)

At least I did learn that the black mambo is actually not the most dangerous snake here and that it only strikes if it feels cornered. Notes to self: never intimidate a snake and never have a bunny here as a pet!