5/08/2006

More Snake Adventures

Yes, it's true. The saga continues. So when we last left our hero, Bobo the snake had just been rescued from the book shelf by BIL and DH, having spent the night there after escaping from his cage the night BIL and sister (Is there a blog acronym for that? DS, for Dear Sister?) arrived for their Spring Break trip back East. Yeah, we even found scales under the bed, which means he took a little detour before heading to the bookshelf. That thought freaked sis out, to say the least. Anyway, BIL tracked him down, and we got him safely back into the cage. Then BIL decided Bobo would probably be hungry after his little excitement, and so BIL got Bobo a mouse for dinner. Bobo snatched it up greedily, just like he always does, and sister pronounced it one of the grossest things she has ever seen. Ok, that was what, a month ago? Well, we decided he was probably getting hungry again (we feed him about once a month), so we got Bobo a mouse yesterday. Now, it was during the day, and snakes feed at night, but we were too busy to give it to him that night, and we figured he would be hungry enough to eat the mouse. We were wrong. Bobo didn't touch the mouse. Seriously. The mouse at first was running around, you know, like terrified animals who know they will be shortly consumed by a predator do. But eventually, after about 3 hours, the mouse settled down into the cage, built himself a little nest with Bobo's bark, and FELL ASLEEP! Ok, if this mammal is NAPPING, surely he is not feeling in fear of the very large reptile less than a foot away. Weird. At one point, before the mouse's little moment of slumber, the two animals actually, as Jacob put it, nuzzled noses. Jacob was actually quite delighted. Hey, the mouse and snake are friends! What the heck is this? Bobo doesn't make friends with mice--he's a killing machine! Not so yesterday. Ok, so we decide to leave the mouse there, and check up on him in the morning. Surely he would have disposed of the mammal at night, right? Again, wrong. We woke up this morning, only to find that the little mouse had dug a trench in the bark and was snuggled UNDER the snake's water dish, which was full, which meant that the snake couldn't get at him. Smart little bugger, if you ask me. And at this point, Bobo was completely curled up, totally uninterested. Jacob said, "Oh, they really ARE friends!" My dad said, "This is the beginning of a children's book". Jacob said, "What book? Can you read it to me? Where's the book?" Yeah, thanks Dad. So now what do we do with the mouse? Bobo won't eat the mouse if it is dead. How long can a mouse go without food and water? We finally decided to take the mouse out of the cage and try to keep it alive until we think Bobo will eat it. We now have the mouse installed in Lola's old cage (Lola, for those of you who haven't kept up, is our former parakeet. She drowned in the toilet) with newspaper and mouse food that I got from the pet store ages ago in preparation for this very scenario. Now Jacob wants to name this mouse. Hello? How are we supposed to feed a mouse with a name to Bobo? Like any one of us want to see Bobo devour "Fluffy". DH thinks we should just cut our losses, let the stupid mouse free in the woods and let the thing fend for itself, forfeiting the $1.20 we paid for it. A lot less hassle, and, arguably, more humane. At least we are giving the mouse a chance. Ok, not much of one, since it was born in captivity, has no idea how to forage for food, and is snow white, which means it doesn't exactly blend in with the forest floor, but hey, we could at least say we tried. Or, something like that. My sister had the best suggestion. Keep the mouse as a pet and just buy another one for Bobo. Think of it as food storage for the snake. I guess that would go under the motto "Be prepared."

9 Comments:

Blogger Julie said...

Snake food storage. That's one of the funniest things I've ever read.

5/09/2006 12:24:00 AM  
Blogger Kathryn Thompson said...

LOL. You are too funny. I'd buy that children's book.

5/09/2006 06:17:00 PM  
Blogger Heather O. said...

Title for the children's book, anyone?

5/09/2006 10:37:00 PM  
Blogger marian said...

Bobo and His Lunch Buddy

5/10/2006 02:49:00 PM  
Blogger Heather O. said...

Good one! I like it!

5/10/2006 06:39:00 PM  
Blogger Tigersue said...

I think I saw a news report about this same sort of thing awhile ago. Where ever it was, a zoo I think, they kept the mouse with the snake, feed it and it kept growing. The snake never ate it, they would curl up together and sleep. It had been months and the snake wouldn't eat that mouse for some reason.

5/11/2006 01:17:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just a thought, but is the snake about to shed? If it is, it won't eat.

5/11/2006 02:05:00 PM  
Blogger Heather O. said...

Tigersue-

I saw that story too. I don't think it was a mouse, though. I think it was guinea pig. Same concept, of course, and weird that the snake wouldn't eat it.

Allison-

No, the snake isn't about to shed. I think we just gave it to him during the day, and then by the time it was ready to eat, the mouse had outwitted his predator. We'll try again at night sometime.

5/11/2006 03:21:00 PM  
Blogger Tanya S. said...

This is how I ended up with Felicity, a pet rat. She was supposed to be food for Amadeus, my sister's ball python, but Amadeus was too close to shedding, so the rat remained uneaten. My sister took the rat out after a day or two, we all bonded with the rat, and a new rat had to be purchaced post-shedding. Felicity has since gone on to rodent heaven, but she lived a long, snake-free life.

5/14/2006 05:51:00 PM  

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