Like the American Indian narrator of that fine book One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest says at the end of the novel, “I’ve been away a long time”. Things have been happening here.
First, the landlord decided to replace the living room carpet in my little 2-storey broom cupboard 300 metres from the Pacific; the carpet had come with the building thirty-five years ago. Everyth piece of furniture in the room had to be emptied and the furniture carried outside. This was followed by an orgy of washing 12 years of dust off the furniture – writers aren’t renowned for their housekeeping. After the new carpet had been laid I discovered that the LL had chosen a carpet shade so dark it’s like living on a bitumen road. I have to stop myself from looking left and right when I cross the room): Perhaps it was on special.
Then my male cat bought in Snake No. 3 (it’s Spring over here in beautiful, downtown Australia). He likes to take them into the bathroom upstairs, figuring the shower recess is the best place for an interrogation and easy for me to hose down afterwards. BUT this one was larger than the previous two and he lost it halfway up the internal staircase. I couldn’t do the bucket trip I’d applied in the bathroom scenario on the previous two occasions and had to resort to waiting until the snake reached the living room floor and corralling it with a straw In basket, held down by an antique flat iron; these were the only things to hand at the time. What to do next? That took some thinking. I managed to slide an old Barry Manilow vinyl record cover under the In basket and then transfer the whole lot to a giant garbage bag which I carried down to the canal. The captive looked none the worse for wear when I released him – standing well back and retrieving the various items afterwards. He made for the water and I made my way home with tips for writers the last thing on my mind.
Danielle de Valera 
Hi Danielle,
I love your amusing anecdote of the days events. And your rescue efforts paid off…well done.
Thanks, Lucy. Another day I’ll do Snake No.1, the day my daughter unwittingly took a shower with the yellow-bellied black – all courtesy of Tim, the (neutered) cat.
That must have been character building – the snake, I mean. Ever seen a sign on the side of the road: Road Plant Ahead. Maybe your LL intends to refurbish the driveway and put the road plant on your floor so it will grow out the door and along the drive in both directions. Have you put a pedestrian crossing in yet? You’ll still have to look RL&R again, but if you get hit by a beer moth you’ll be able to sue.,
I call your python with our three. 🙂
Sorry — You know me I’m grinning now — Anyway, yes we had one massive python sliding among DH’s ‘I might need this one day’ stuff in the garage, knocking ‘stuff’ off the shelves as it went — (looking for the zebra crossing?) It’s found a family next door and together they make three. They’re keeping an eye on the pet rabbit, and cats. Bless their shiny scales they did clean up the rat in the compost bin.
We have four cats and no snakes — oh maybe the rare garden snake. But thank God our cats never brought one home. My 100% Irish wife would have a fit.
Thanks for the fun post, Danielle. You’re a hero for dealing with the problem
Ed
http://edgriffin.net/
Thanks for commenting, Ed. I suspect they were only young carpet snakes (pythons) or yellow-bellied blacks – not the dangerous browns – or my cat wouldn’t be alive to tell the tale. I’ve taken to locking him in with me if I lie down in the afternoon. Getting woken up in that manner is not pleasant 🙂 you need all your wits about you for the manouevre of getting them into the bucket/in basket/whatever comes to hand.