Tell me now, who am da man?

I rock! Yes, that's right. Me. Rocking.

We had some little baby snakes get loose at work several months ago - October and February - and went missing. We all assumed they'd perished in the winter or wandered off somewhere. Well, last Friday night I was walking to my car after an after-hours event at work. It was dark out; about 10:00. Suddenly, my cell phone begins to ring. It's Alex, who was walking down from the front gate with Elliott and Brindi when they saw a small snake on the path. I told them to keep it in sight, dumped all my stuff in my car, and ran over to where they were.

Brindi was using her cell phone as a light to watch the snake, which was curled up at the base of a tree. I had thought that maybe it would end up being a garter snake or some other wild snake, but no! It was one of the missing gray-banded king snakes! While I was still trying to register all this, he began to crawl away. Without even thinking, I grabbed him by the tail and picked him up.

It was very much a Crocodile Hunter moment, me holding the cranky snake by the tail, and trying not to get bit. I took off running for the reptile house - Alex, Elliott, and Brindi following close behind. I managed to get the door open with my right hand, and then threw a pillow case at Elliott so he could hold it open for me.

Success! Single-handedly brought in a snake, months on the lam. Granted, I'm not the one who spotted him, but I did catch him. Anyway, I called the curator of the zoo who instructed me to put that pillow case in another pillowcase in a locking snake carrier in my office, to make sure he wouldn't get out again before the vets could pick him up in the morning.

The next day, the vet came and got him, pronouncing him to be in excellent health. It also turned out that he was the one who escaped in October, meaning he'd lived out there for almost eight months before we got him back. What a guy. Now if only we could find the one we lost in February...