Battle of the Glove
I ran the Charm City Reptile and Amphibian Rescue for 14 years (no longer in operation). Here is a story about a large donation of bananas.
Gloves… Not Just for Breakfast Anymore!
I had to give a talk at 9:30 this morning at the St. Paul School. I do this every year on the last day of school. The kids don’t want to do any work on the last day so I help entertain them.
I went to get the Dumeril’s boa (AKA “Demerol” boa as the person who surrendered it, called it) out of the cage. I didn’t feel like messing around for 10 minutes with a hook because it’s super bitey, so I put on my big welding gloves and just grabbed it, but not before it tried to grab me! Instead, it grabbed the glove. It had me wrapped so tightly that I couldn’t get the glove off.
It didn’t hurt. I just couldn’t get my hand out of the glove. Finally, I was able to scrunch my hand up and pull it out of the glove after several minutes of ridiculous snake-wrestling.
Now I was running late, so I had to leave it, just hoping it wouldn’t swallow that glove like the dummy it is. Meanwhile, I wasted at least five minutes of precious animal-packing time.
I got everything in the car and took off. Traffic was terrible – I was not even on the highway! I sat there for a good 15 minutes, depriving me of the time I needed to unload my car.
Once there, I unpacked just as the kids were arriving. Maybe I had 15 seconds to spare.
Using all of that adrenaline is exhausting!
Battle of the Glove
Four and a half hours later, I was home and everything was unpacked. The snake was still wrapped around that glove, but thankfully, not swallowing it. Every time I made a move to get it, the snake coiled tighter around the glove.
Just another day in the asylum!
Postscript… The snake did start to swallow the glove. I had to yank it out of its mouth. Nothing else worked. I tried to do the least stressful and most pain-free thing by letting it release the glove. Perhaps the leather glove tasted too much like “animal,” and it wasn’t about to give it up!
I put on a different pair of gloves (my favorite glove was, of course, in the snake’s mouth) so I wouldn’t get bitten. I gently pulled on the glove. I think the snake’s mouth was too small to satisfy its hunger with this leathery meal. Snakes will instinctively release something that is too large and spit it out. Gently, I pulled the glove out. There was a little blood. It might have broken a tooth or two in the process. I was trying to avoid breaking teeth even though they grow back.
Oh well… Lesson learned. I should have forcefully removed the glove as soon as I got back from the talk. In my defense, I seriously didn’t think the snake was going to try and swallow it. This was one reptile I was happy to see get adopted.
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Read more by Holli Friedland.