CBS4 (Denver, Colorado) 11 December 08 Python Cheats Death At Denver Sewer Plant (Paul Day)
Thornton, Colo.: A python has been adopted by a Thornton family after surviving a death defying swim through Denver's Sewer Plant.
"We see snakes a lot in the headworks but very rarely are they alive," says plant operator Stan Light.
The creature was discovered last April lying in a large debris collection bin.
Battered and bleeding it was obviously alive explains Rex Archer, another plant operator at Metro Wastewater, who retrieved it.
The python was put into a box and kept warm until Light -- who's also a snake hobbyist -- could take the critter home and care for it. It turned out to be a female.
He speculates the snake either escaped from her original owner and crawled into a floor drain or, more likely, was flushed down a toilet by someone who wanted to get rid of her.
The python's journey into the sewer plant not only washed her through a myriad of pipes and open waterways.
The four and a half foot long reptile was also flushed through a high pressure grinding operation.
What likely saved her is how she reacts at the first sign of trouble. She's a Ball Python.
"She just curled up in a ball," explains Light and the spinning augur just pushed her through.
He adds, "If it had been anything else, I don't think she would have made it alive so she's very lucky."
Lucky too that another plant operator, Chrissy Jackson, could be persuaded to adopt her and make her the family pet.
The snake has been named Dutchess because of her regal color pattern.
She's fed a diet of small rats, is very docile, and makes a great pet, according to Jackson.
There's just one downside.
Since arriving at the Jackson home, Dutchess has already gotten free -- twice.
"We're working on building her a more secure cage," adds Jackson.
Python Cheats Death At Denver Sewer Plant