COBRA UPDATE

Open air Altar - ready for the Blessing of the Animals

Church of the Resurrection, Longwood, Florida, October 11, 2015

Dog & hamster (?) ready to be blessed

Other participants, besides almost every kind of dog imaginable, included a cat (uncaged) and a parrot. 

Also . . .

Father Paul with a corn snake

Speaking of snakes . . .

COBRA UPDATE

I heard this story on the news last night, but reading the details in The Orlando Sentinel this morning was enough to make my hair stand on end. Nearly everyone in a single family home or condo in the U.S. has a washer and dryer. For many of us in Florida, that means both appliances in the garage. (Where mine is.) Just this week I was freaked by a 12" baby black snake slithering under the wall behind my hot water heater. But a deadly cobra? Here is a portion of the tale of the discovery of the snake that escaped its cage on September 1st.

Article by Stephanie Allen and David Harris in The Orlando Sentinel, October 9, 2015:

Jenifer Porter and her two fellow animal-control officers were corralling the venomous king cobra after it came out from underneath a dryer in a Ocoee-area garage. Suddenly, the snake, named Elvis, escaped their grasp. He extended his body, becoming as tall as the 5-foot 6-inch Porter.

"I was pretty much looking him in the eye," she said, adding he was about 2 feet away which was "definitely within striking distance." 

Porter backed away, and animal officer Kirsten Smith stepped on the snake's tail. Using snake tongs, officer Billy Ledford grabbed Elvis' head. When a box normally used to contain captured snakes proved too small, officers put Elvis in a cat cage.

. . . . Cynthia Mullvain found the snake under her dryer Wednesday while she was doing laundry. She heard hissing and called police. "I didn't see it; I heard it," she told Orlando Sentinel partner Fox 35. "It's a big snake. It only hissed when I put something in the dryer."

As Orange County Animal Services spokewoman Diane Summers put it, "It's not a call the officers involved will soon forget."

The article points out that although a great deal of time and effort was spent hunting for the snake, it had gone only a short distance - Ms Mullvain is a neighbor of Dragon Ranch where the cobra was caged. The article goes on to say, the Florida Wildlife Commission has not yet determined if the snake's owner will be billed for the cost of the hunt. And then . . .

It's also not clear how long the snake was under the dryer, where it had been before that or what it ate to survive. It likely chose the dryer because it was a warm place. . . . At the end of the article, Ms Porter is quoted as saying, "We did what we have to do to keep the community safe."

All I can say is, "Yikes!" I'm going to have a few qualms the next time I go out to the garage to do my laundry.

Addendum, Saturday, October 10:
The Florida Wildlife Commission is revoking Dragon Ranch's permit to keep exotic animals. (A ruling that will likely be appealed.)

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A "pretty please" reminder to my readers that I would very much appreciate your going to the link below, clicking on "KindleScout," and reading the excerpt from my SyFy venture, Rebel Princess. Serious literature it's not, but I hope you'll find it enjoyable enough to nominate it for publication by Scout, a program that actually provides its authors with "upfront" money, as well as royalties. Thank you, merci beaucoup, muchas gracious, blagadaryoo vas!

Link to Kindle Scout

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

For Grace's website, listing all books as Blair Bancroft, click here.
For a brochure for Grace's editing service, Best Foot Forward, click here.