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TIMES-HERALD (Forrest City, Arkansas) 25 July 07 Ball python surprises local homeowner as she cleans cabinet
A Forrest City woman got quite a surprise Tuesday morning when she opened a cabinet inside her home and found a ball python hiding amongst plastic bags she had been collecting.
Lula Sain of 407 D Street said finding the snake was more shocking than it was scary.
“I had some plastic bags under the cabinet that I had been collecting to give to the Food Pantry, and one of my daughters told me over the weekend that I needed to go ahead and get rid of the bags. I started cleaning out from under the cabinet and had gotten down to about the last bag when I saw him sitting back in the cabinet all wrapped up,” she said.
Sain said that she wasn’t sure what to do with the reptile after finding it. She said that she went outside to see if anyone could help her and found a neighbor.
“Well, I took the broom and swept him out onto the floor, and he just sat there and didn’t move, so I went outside to see if anybody could help me. I saw one of my neighbors and told him that I had something to show him, and when he came in and saw it, he almost jumped out of his skin,” Sain said. “He told me that I needed to call the humane society, and I went out on the porch and called the fire department and told him to watch the snake. He kept his distance from it, but stayed in here with it while I was on the phone. They suggested that I call the police department, and then some people came out here pretty quickly and got it out for me,” Sain said.
The man who actually went into the home and removed the snake, which was between two and three feet long, was Capt. Jimmy Sandage with the Forrest City Fire Department. While it was not the fire department’s duty to remove the snake, Sandage said it was simply a matter of helping a citizen.
“It was just one of those things where a citizen needed some help and we’re here to help the citizens. I told the chief that I didn’t have a problem going in and taking a look at the situation, and we went over there. Once I walked in and saw it, I knew it was a python. It had wrapped itself up into a ball, and you could barely see the head. It never gave me any problems,” Sandage said. “This was just another opportunity for us to help a citizen that needed us.”
According to a Web site, ball pythons are considered a good snake for a beginning snake owner. They grow to between three and five feet long and are quite docile and easy to handle. They received their name due to their defense mechanism, which is to roll themselves into a tight ball and tuck their head inside their coils. They are non-venomous and can typically live, with proper care, between 20 and 30 years. The snakes feed exclusivly on small to medium sized rodents. The species is native to the savannahs of west and central Africa, and are particularly found in dry brushland. They are also found in open grasslands, cleared forests and sometimes in urban areas.
Officials with the police and fire department said that the animal probably escaped from a terrarium at another home in the neighborhood.
Mrs. Sain said she was unsure how long the reptile had been in her home, but said that she later found evidence that the snake had shed its skin underneath the cabinet as well. According to firefighters, the snake was given to the son of one of the firemen to keep as a pet.
Ball python surprises local homeowner as she cleans cabinet

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