Hissing Cat Awakens Mother

[skipaway]

to find a Python wrapped around her 2 year old daughter's arm.
Python

This quote from the article again

Last month, a 3-year-old Australian boy escaped injury after a collection of eggs he had found in his Queensland yard and stashed in his bedroom closet "hatched into a slithering tangle of deadly snakes."

and this

Also in December, a childcare center in Darwin was forced to be shut down before Christmas because of a snake infestation. According to ABC Australia, snake catchers who were called in when a baby python was spotted found a nest with 23 baby pythons and 41 hatched eggs inside a wall

Time for Australia to import some mongooses (mongeese?)

[IceAlisa]

Glory to the kitty for alerting the parent!

[Aussie Willy]

Glory to the kitty for alerting the parent!

I agree.

The kid with the snake eggs was a funny one.

[Wiery]

Good kitty!

[maatTheViking]

When my friends moved to Australia, her facebook updates were pretty funny:
'Went for a walk with kid. Saw xxx. Didn't touch, they are very poisonous. Warning to stay on path serious'
'checking garden for snakes before kid goes to play'
'new garden, unfortunately with stone fence. Holes can hide yy spiders, they are very poisonous'.
'saw platypus in zoo, super cute (also, poisonous)'.

my conclusion is that everything in Australia is dangerous!


what a good kitty!

[IceAlisa]

Not moving to Australia! I am terrified of snakes. Also, not moving to South Africa. A friend who lived there said she regularly found snakes in the house and garden. The best thing for me is to stay in a urban area where snakes fear to tread (or slither as the case may be).

[mkats]

I have always loved snakes, but dreaded spiders. Things with too many legs scare me; things without legs are just fine.

I always pick up earthworms when I see them washed out onto the sidewalk when it rains, and put them back in the grass/dirt where they won't get stepped on.

[Artemis@BC]

Time for Australia to import some mongooses (mongeese?)

I'm sure that was at least a partly facetious comment ... but I'll give it a serious answer: importing a foreign species to get rid of a "pest" problem is never, ever a good idea. Foreign species become invasive species in no time, and getting rid of them is next to impossible. Just ask Jamaica about what happened when they introduced mongooses.

And as if Australia didn't already have enough troubles with invasive introduced species! (those dastardly rabbits!)

But definitely the snakes and the kitty!

[duane]

I have always loved snakes, but dreaded spiders. Things with too many legs scare me; things without legs are just fine.

Same here. I'm fascinated by spiders, but dread them as well. I HATE centipedes!!

[madm]

Not moving to Australia! I am terrified of snakes. Also, not moving to South Africa. A friend who lived there said she regularly found snakes in the house and garden. The best thing for me is to stay in a urban area where snakes fear to tread (or slither as the case may be).

Or you could have the all-night noise and home invasions from African penguins near Cape Town. At least they are cute and not poisonous.
http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2012/10...ndangered.html

And then there are the baboons on the Cape Peninsula that stop at nothing to open your car, purse, picnic basket or whatever to get at food!
http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2...rists-car?lite
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...-video-ap.html

If you're going to live near wildlife on the fringes of suburbia, there are bound to be conflicts. Even in the U.S. we have close encounters between homeowners and mountain lions, coyotes, skunks, poisonous snakes and spiders, etc.

[Aussie Willy]

None of you would like to visit my place. I have heaps of spiders around and are always cleaning cobwebs around outside. Here is a picture of one of our special spiders called a huntsman. Very common.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...er-in-hand.jpg

I work with a South African who has told me about a couple of their spiders. Vicious nasty things.

[maatTheViking]

If you're going to live near wildlife on the fringes of suburbia, there are bound to be conflicts. Even in the U.S. we have close encounters between homeowners and mountain lions, coyotes, skunks, poisonous snakes and spiders, etc.

The city I live in is a suburb to a suburb to Seattle, and about 20 years ago I was told there were only a few loggers/farmers and forest here. Today there are 30k + people. Our kitties are indoor kitties because of the coyotes and raccoons.


Last summer there were a story in the local paper of someone having a black bear in the back yard!

but at least it is not poison!

[Alex Forrest]

Is this satire? "The snake [had] not in any way, shape or form intended to eat the baby," Tex Tillis, who runs Tex's Snake Removals, told the Daily Telegraph. "It was trying to have a group hug."

Umm, a python wrapped around my kid would be one hell of a dead python. Group hug, my ass.

And WTG, kitty. Kitty seems to have more sense than everyone in this town.

[IceAlisa]

Or you could have the all-night noise and home invasions from African penguins near Cape Town. At least they are cute and not poisonous.
http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2012/10...ndangered.html

Penguin home invasions? It sounds funny but I bet it is not. I'll take penguins over venomous snakes and constrictors any day though.

[suep1963]

My cousin lived in Singapore for a number of years. They had to watch out for cobras in the backyard.

[Moto Guzzi]

None of you would like to visit my place. I have heaps of spiders around and are always cleaning cobwebs around outside. Here is a picture of one of our special spiders called a huntsman. Very common.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...er-in-hand.jpg

I work with a South African who has told me about a couple of their spiders. Vicious nasty things.

Why do I always click on links that I know are going to show a spider? I hate spiders and looking at that made my skin crawl.

We had mice and rats in the building where I used to work. One day we received an email that said snakes had been found in the building and somebody had brought them in and released them, apparently thinking that they could eat the mice and rats. I wanted to go find a mongoose to get rid of the snakes, the rats, and the mice.

I'll bet that woman was glad she had such a smart kitty, and I'll bet she has trouble sleeping for a while.

[misskarne]

Time for Australia to import some mongooses (mongeese?)

Not on your fricking life...between the rabbits, foxes, FRICKING CANE TOADS, and everything else imported, we've got enough trouble.

my conclusion is that everything in Australia is dangerous!

Did you know we also have several varieties of poisonous plants?

Is this satire? "The snake [had] not in any way, shape or form intended to eat the baby," Tex Tillis, who runs Tex's Snake Removals, told the Daily Telegraph. "It was trying to have a group hug."

Umm, a python wrapped around my kid would be one hell of a dead python. Group hug, my ass.

And WTG, kitty. Kitty seems to have more sense than everyone in this town.

If you'd actually read the article, the python was looking for warmth. It didn't see the child as food; all it saw was a nice hot spot to curl around. It didn't actually do anything harmful until the mother came in and started freaking and pulling the snake off. Which in reality, is actually how most snakebites occur.

It's not satire, but it is a touch of the Australian larrikin sense of humour.

[ballettmaus]

my conclusion is that everything in Australia is dangerous!

I heard somewhere, a while ago, that Australia has the most poisonous animals and the most of the poisonous ones, too. Can't remember the actual numbers but they were insanely high.

[Anita18]

I have always loved snakes, but dreaded spiders. Things with too many legs scare me; things without legs are just fine.

I always pick up earthworms when I see them washed out onto the sidewalk when it rains, and put them back in the grass/dirt where they won't get stepped on.

That's what I used to do too, until recently at work where the earthworms LEAP into the air! Every time I touched them with a leaf, they would jump!

I have no idea what sort of cancer treatment or radiation we've been inadvertently leeching into the ground, but our earthworms are frightening!

[Aussie Willy]

I heard somewhere, a while ago, that Australia has the most poisonous animals and the most of the poisonous ones, too. Can't remember the actual numbers but they were insanely high.

I found when I went to the US and Canada, when I went hiking, people would ask what the difference was hiking in Australia and North America. My reply was that in Australia things can bite you, but in NA things could eat you.