Adventures in Suburban Wildlife, Part Deux
The exterminator called me into the basement today. Evidently, while they take care of mice and bugs, they don’t handle snakes. And there was one in the basement. I asked him if it was one color, like black, or multi-colored. He said it was multi-colored.
My oldest brother once had a boa constrictor, aptly named Flex. One day he left Flex on a tree branch outside the front door. Flex wasn’t an active fellow, and mostly just chilled in one place. Stephen would check on Flex every 15 minutes or so and, as usual, the snake never moved from the same branch it was put on. But when Stephen went back to check for the last time the snake was gone. And never seen again.
So we always have these ideas about the legend of Flex. Did he die when the New England winter came? Maybe he’s still alive, and 20 feet long, lurking around the house. Maybe he mated with a local snake and had hundreds of half-breed babies.
Anyway, I followed the exterminator down the basement stairs, all the way to the back of the basement. We had a flashlight and immediately found the snake. It looked like a baby boa. About 2 1/2 feet long. The head was slightly different, more python like, but the coloring was similar to a boa or python.
Not wanting to see what would happen if I got bit, I put on some ski gloves and grabbed the snake and brought it upstairs and out the front door. He seems fairly happy outside.
I searched online for Rhode Island snakes and my best guess is that it’s a Northern Water Snake.
Seeing a snake that has similar markings to a boa made me wonder if Flex is still alive, roaming the yard, and the culprit who brought down Bambi in the yard and ate half its lower body.
Peter Cervieri is co-founder of and Director of Business Development for ScribeMedia.Org. He has many fetishes. Among them is collecting business cards.
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