Reporting for some overtime Friday night I walked up to the police station where I saw a feral cat in the lobby, prowling about. It ran off as I approached but suddenly a red snake darted out from behind the column as I walked by in my shorts. It gave me a heart stopping shock, even though it missed my hairy leg. It's the first time a snake had lunged at me.
I went for my camera as the snake crawled up the column in the lobby and by the time I was organized it was shooting the moon. I think the cat had made the snake cranky but I couldn't remember for the life of me how the ditty goes about red next to black or yellow next to red to identify a poisonous coral snake.
It look mean enough as it "snaked" up the vertical column.
Inside the police station I found Officer Biskup who thought the drama sounded interesting so he called out a flag down by a Ten-37 (a dispatcher in ten codes). We went back out to move the snake along before a visitor to the police station got freaked out or bitten. I put Eric's bullet proof vest between me and the snake. A matter of mere prudence, you understand. I had my uniform long pants in a bag so my legs were naked in my civilian shorts and I felt vulnerable.I tell Eric he reminds me of Vic Mackey the wildly corrupted cop in The Shield, in my opinion one of the best cop shows I've seen on Netflix. He looks at me a bit old fashioned when I mention the similarity but I think Biskup and the actor Michael Chiklis were separated at birth.
Be that as it may Eric moved the snake along out of the lobby with his night stick.I had thought maybe we could wake the fire department up next door with their padded fire clothes and buckets they seem well equipped to move a snake on. Eric disagreed and scooted the snake into the parking lot where it was reluctant to go as I think it feared the cat returning.I have known Eric for seven years when he was a sergeant and my shift commander when I first went to nights and was learning to dispatch. He went away for a couple of years to police the wide world of the continental US and then he came back to where his home really is. With the snakes, apparently which he likes as little as I do.With the snake safely lost in the mangroves I went to work and Eric cleared the call telling Channel One to have the victim's advocate on stand by for me. Very funny- all report calls all the time for Officer Biskup when next I'm dispatching. Police officers know better than to piss off their dispatcher.
I went for my camera as the snake crawled up the column in the lobby and by the time I was organized it was shooting the moon. I think the cat had made the snake cranky but I couldn't remember for the life of me how the ditty goes about red next to black or yellow next to red to identify a poisonous coral snake.It look mean enough as it "snaked" up the vertical column.Inside the police station I found Officer Biskup who thought the drama sounded interesting so he called out a flag down by a Ten-37 (a dispatcher in ten codes). We went back out to move the snake along before a visitor to the police station got freaked out or bitten. I put Eric's bullet proof vest between me and the snake. A matter of mere prudence, you understand. I had my uniform long pants in a bag so my legs were naked in my civilian shorts and I felt vulnerable.I tell Eric he reminds me of Vic Mackey the wildly corrupted cop in The Shield, in my opinion one of the best cop shows I've seen on Netflix. He looks at me a bit old fashioned when I mention the similarity but I think Biskup and the actor Michael Chiklis were separated at birth.
Upstairs the Conch (the "h" is silent) Karl identified the snake as a corn snake and harmless. " I got bitten by one two weeks ago and I barely felt it," he said smiling cheerfully. Well it could have been a deadly coral snake I consoled myself.
6 comments:
Milk snake - "red on black, friend of Jack. Red on yellow, kill a fellow" as our friend at the Calusa Nature Center taught us: http://www.calusanature.com/
Hmm, they have movie night with a generally a lot of kids and they are showing the Rocky Horror Picture show - "lets do the time warp again..." - seems odd in the land of high moral, homophobic ground, doesn't it?
I like snakes.
They're tasty.
Its the closeted poofs that protest too much. Sez I who has to get robed ion motorcycle gear to ride home in the rain this (finally) rainy morning.
They drink snakes blood in Asia. where they also eat dogs. Fuck 'em.
I've not seen any puppies for sale in the meat markets, so methinks one is being a bit harsh - odd.
Don't forget snake wine in China.
i saw the Top Gear episode in Vietnam where they drank snake blood. They can call it wine but I call it gross.
In California I used to work with Philipinos who looking lovingly at my dogs. "they eat dogs in the philipines!" I protested. "Not in our province," they said, lookingly longingly at Emma's plump chops. Hmmph.
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