Heatwave days last week, but the wretched python had me beseiged in the house with the door and all but two windows shut! I still am beseiged, although the temperature has dropped. Here’s why.
I was making some small shelves in the house, trotting back and forth to the verandah to saw and drill timber, stepping over the thigh-high masonite snake barrier in place in the doorway.
On one foray back out, I got to the door just as the python was oozing over the snake barrier; half in, half out. I shut the door against it so it couldn’t come in, not fully shut, so not hard enough to squash it against the ‘barrier’ – ha!
I just stood there holding it, almost heaving with fear, cursing hard and wondering what to do! It wouldn’t be able to climb back up in such a small space so it would remain there until I did something.
Dragging the sewing machine over with my foot, I wedged it against the door, then climbed out the window and used one of my long bits of shelf timber to lever the ‘barrier’ up and hold it up so the thing could get out. If it headed my way, I’d drop the timber and run.
But it went into the box cover on my gas bottle, right near where the grandkids play at cooking.
Constant checking showed it later went back behind the shower to its old haunt on the timber frame. I washed in the sink that night.
Thoughts of what the situation would have been had I been a second later reaching the doorway kept me shuddering all night.
Next day it had gone from there. Good, maybe I could have a shower.
But no.
Peering about to see where it had moved to – far away, I hoped – I broke out in a sweat as I saw it curled up just above the shower. Had this been at night I might have missed it until I was in there, happening to glance up, maybe with shampoo in my eyes. Ugh!
I think I’m losing my nerve to cope with such things. If the python gets inside I’d never find it in my crowded cabin. Worse still, if I didn’t know it had got inside and it just appeared, like from under my desk, where I now must check. Often. Double UGH!
Of course when my friend the snake man came the following day – no python. Or the next day. ‘Too hot for it’, he said. The door and windows remain closed except for the few with screens; I put the fan on.
There’s still no python to be seen; not that this gives me any comfort. I keep remembering how my friend kept looking up at my ceiling edges, or behind my fuel stove. He clearly thought it could be inside!
I will have to go a demolition yard and get a screen door and some screen windows to remake to fit. The ‘snake barrier’ has been tossed in the shed. But nothing is ever that simple: my car doesn’t have a towbar or roof racks.
Perhaps it knew the snake man was here. I expect to see it again now he’s gone.
Thanks for your commiserating comments, Fleur, DWG and Gaye. Other people who live in bush settings, especially creekside rainforest, don’t mind pythons in their house (I visited one yesterday to do a story for Owner Builder magazine). They would see no need to be ‘brave’ as there’s no threat.
Pythons have been rarely sighted here so I haven’t had to get so used to them.
My shudders come from a personal degree of phobia, which, like Gaye’s, has lessened, BUT not to the extent of sharing my room with one. They already have the rest of the 65 ha. Refuge, the shed, the verandah etc!
hi Sharyn,
what a delightful story. I agree with others; you are very brave. Although I live in a rural area (of the Hunter Valley), I don’t see a lot of snakes. Like you, me terror of snakes has lessened over time, but if I had one invading my living space, I would be a wreck.
I hope there is a good outcome for you and the snake.
Cheers
Gaye
Sharyn, you have been much braver than anyone should ever be when a python is involved. The very idea of it to invade a person’s privacy!! I would suggest that when your friend does see it and is able to catch it….please deliver it as far as you can get it from your cabin. I don’t dare tell what I would have to do to it by now. You are much braver than I could ever be, but I hate that you are having to watch every move you make…that stress is not good!!! Do take care.
DWG
Sharyn I take everything back that I said about you being made of sturdy stuff – well you are, but I’d be losing my nerve too! I had a little copperhead in my kitchen about three weeks ago, and that was enough to scare me, let alone having a huge python come visiting. You are an amazing woman! And still very brave. Fleur
Me too, Kez!!! I may be a wuss but it’s very nerve wracking to be peering at and into everything all the time.
Oh Sharyn, I really wish it would go away!!!
Shane, until it tried to come inside I’d been attempting to resign myself to its presence. I thought I’d come a long way from my past terror of all snakes.
Yes, a python is far better than a black or brown snake, of which I have plenty (found a shed skin in my underfloor cellar last week!).
But the python is so silent and can fit into such a small space that it could end up anywhere – like in my boot.
Sorry, I want the inside of my cabin to be my refuge and mine alone. I guess it’s my own fault for still not having an indoor shower.
Sharyn,
Do you think you could get used to the python? After all they aren’t poisonous.
Just keep telling that to yourself over and over. It could be worse and be a brown snake!
Your snake friend will need to relocate your python flatmate a long way away if you don’t wish her to return.
Just don’t drop it off at my place please!