DONCASTER FREE PRESS (UK) 05 October 06 Distraught Family Offered Lifeline (Chris Walker)
A family forced out of their home by a snake living in their kitchen have been offered a much-needed lifeline.
Lisa Haigh and her three children have renewed hope of moving back into their family home in Mexborough after a group of local snake experts offered to help her.
The South Yorkshire branch of the International Herpetological Society intervened to help the Haighs after their story featured in last week's Times.
Lisa and her children - Joseph, nine, Oliver, six, and 16-week-old baby daughter Emily - have not slept in their home for more than four weeks. Husband Kevin has remained at the house with orders to catch the four-foot-long reptile, which was living in a cavity behind their cooker.
Chris Shantell of the society said: "We've blocked all the holes up in the house and made a hole in the conservatory. We've put some water outside of the wall so the snake knows the water is there. It can last months without food but it needs to have water."
She added: "The snake is coming in to where it's warm. The first place they go to is where it's warm, like the pipes of a cooker. He sounds like a fairly big snake and from the description we think it could be a corn snake. Lisa is determined she's not coming back until it's found or we can prove that it's dead. We're just going to keep going back until we can get hold of it or find out that it's dead."
Mrs Haigh, of Dryden Street in Mexborough, said: "The society came round this week. They've been really good, they say they're not going to give up until they've caught it. They said they would come back later in the week but to call them if my husband catches it in the meantime. We're hopeful we could be moving back home soon - we've not been there for nearly five weeks now."
Distraught Family Offered Lifeline