A Pet From the Wild

Contrary to common practice, the most extraordinary pets couldn’t be acquired in the pet shop but comes to anyone in some “twist of fate” of sorts, coincidence or in the nearest terminology to describe it, serendipity.

Yes, serendipity, as wikipedia describes “is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely”. So I recalled that it was on a Wednesday morning of the 5th of July 2006 when I met my pet Max. I was an aircraft mechanic working for an aviation company based at the General Aviation Area of the Manila Domestic Airport in the Philippines. I was making my rounds on the aircraft inside the hangar since there was no flight for the day and an inspection of the communication equipment on each aircraft was to be made by an inspector from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). When the inspector arrived, he was asking for our supervisor who was nowhere to be seen inside the hangar so I was obliged to leave to search for the latter at the quarters since it was 15 minutes to lunchbreak. The employees’ quarters was at the back of the hangar, as I arrived at the building a commotion broke out brought about by a small snake, about 1 1/2 feet long cornered at the door of the quarters by my supervisor. As he was about to crush it with a stick, I managed to grab it from behind knowing from the color that it was a reticulated python and so it was a non-venomous type. With the snake at my grasp along the head preventing it from biting me, I asked my supervisor to leave me the responsibility of disposing the snake and he readily agreed as his attention was called back inside the hangar. What happened after wasn’t my informal “baptism” as a snake killer of sort but as a wildlife activist (or should I say passivist), from then on I developed close sympathy to reticulated pythons roaming around the area (I had the suspicion that many years ago before the airport site was flattened to gave way to the building of runways, the area was densely forested and the wild animals, reticulated pythons, Philippine cobras, monitor lizards (bayawak) found there way to survive under a network of holes underground or certain parts of the ground that remained hollow when flattened).

I managed to construct a makeshift cage to keep the snake from slipping out. The first two weeks was crucial, it bit me countless times on both arms (which is rather painless considering you’re not the nervous type, I must say ant bites hurt a bit more and mosquito bites leave skin irritation which make one itchy but this one is second to none). What I did was I took the python from the cage everyday, the creature was a psychic animal (if that what we may call someone who could read minds). if I should feel nervous in reaching out my hands to hold him (I later determined the sex to be male considering the method of determining sexes) he would bit me at a fraction of a second so fast that I will only see my hands bleeding afterwards but no pain. Consider the same feeling when your doctor is about to prick your fingertips for blood samples, it’s always scary before but painless afterwards. When he was on my hold however, confidence had been initially established and in the long run, I managed to hide him inside my flying suit at will.

Well it took months later that no biting occurred. Considering that I always carry it along after office hours (I was a stay-in employee) my colleagues who were not the scary type had even been counted within Max’s circle of confidence that he has grown accustomed to every human touch. The responsibility was however staggering, Max consumes 1 live chick a week for the first 2 months I caught him but as he was growing bigger and longer, this advanced to 2-3 chicks a week the next succeeding months. Everytime he has to excrete or urinate I always bathe him fresh with a shampoo so that was how spoiled he was. Every 28-30 days the outer skin sheds anew and this shedding becomes apparent when he becomes inactive and coiled at a corner, the eyes are reduced in transparency as the pupils appear to turn white, the skin thus appear dry until it ultimately peels off. Compared to raising a dog or cat, pythons don’t leave a trail of hair around the floor, furniture or whichever place they crawl into. When the skin had been shed, it is much easier to collect. Compare that to a cat or dog’s hair scattered over one’s living room which maybe difficult to pick up when it has mixed up with the floor carpeting, furniture covers, blanket or clothing. Pythons are great escape artists however. This means one has to be able to provide a secured cage when the pet is left out of sight. I left home for Christmas holiday in December 2007 and would be returning to work 2 days after. Leaving Max on a 2′x 2′x 3′ aquarium I have utilized as vivarium, covered with fine screen wire mesh, I called our stay-in office janitor a day after for Max to be fed. I have left 3 live chicks on a separate cage and I instructed those to be taken inside the python’s cage. Our janitor did as requested but considering he was rather scared as I later discovered, he failed to properly clamp the cover in place. So the next thing I knew, the cage was empty when I arrived back to work.

There was a wide stretch of grassy field at the back of our quarters and guessing as to where Max routed his escape left me sleepless for days. It does hurt having to be reminded of the feeling how Max gets himself coiled in my arms in tightened grip so controlled that it would beat the touch of any amateur physical therapist. Weeks passed, Max’s memory seemed to have slowly faded in my thinking. Everything returned as in the good old days within the cycle of work, sleep and all that. So I never did expect it when on the 3rd week of Max’s disappearance, I have to be called to check about a snake’s presence inside the cage at the back of the quarters. A pair of fighting cocks had been raised by my colleagues for cockfighting but as I watched inside the cage where the cocks should be, all were gone except for a python coiled and bloated. I readily reached out for the creature knowing it has overeaten and drowsy, it must be as big as a coke in can and spans 8 feet long when stretch so I never did expect it would be Max. It was a mild feeling however, it didn’t bothered to bite me so I stretch out the python’s belly where the two cocks must have been crushed and regurgitated. Max has a wounded part when he was hit by the door before I caught him, although that part healed in time, the mark remained and it was what I’m expecting to find. I couldn’t describe the feeling as my heart beats with joy that day for under the belly was the mark as it should be. So how did it all end up? I did pay for the loss of the two fighting cocks which was a rather less embarrassment to take other than ultimately losing Max forever. To make my story short, my pet and I had been reunited and I had advanced to feed him 4 chicks a week to keep pace with his growth. We all have the freedom of choice what kind of pet to keep but if I have to be asked, I’ll stick with a python. A man’s best friend couldn’t always be a dog. If you are thinking however that your fate may resemble mine just be sure you pick up the kind of snake with the right pattern when one crosses your path amidst the bushes.