Snake on a plain: Brandon man finds python in his yard
"A snake in the grass," has taken on a whole new meaning for a Brandon man.
Ren Bouchard was pulling into his driveway Sunday evening when he noticed something unusual next to his house.
"I thought at first it was a garden snake," Bouchard told CBC News. "So I told my fiancée to stop the car, to back it up a bit, and I got out of the car to go get it, and I realized the size of it. Like, this is a real [big] snake to me.
"So I told my fiancée to get out of the car, and she's panicking, because she's afraid of the snake, too."
Bouchard said he sent his fiancée to get his brother-in-law who lives near his home on Viscount Crescent. Using a long pole with a net on the end, the pair managed to capture the serpent and place it in a plastic tub. The snake, they saw, was a ball python.
"It wasn't, like, attacking us," Bouchard said. "The snake, I think, was more scared than we were."
Once the two men had the snake in the container, Bouchard said, they were unsure of what to do next.
"It was kind of late at night and in Brandon, I don't know if there's any kind of 24-hours service on pet control," he said.
After unsuccessful attempts to reach the local pound and animal control, he called police.
"They were saying, 'Well, we're going to wait until morning,' and I was like, 'No, you're not waiting till morning. This is a big snake and I don't want that around my house while I'm sleeping."
When officers from the Brandon Police Service arrived, Bouchard said, they put on gloves to pick the snake up, then changed their minds.
"They didn't want to touch it, like, with gloves," Bouchard said. "They took the whole container."
Police confirmed Tuesday they had picked up the snake after Bouchard called them, and placed it in the city's animal control vehicle. From there, animal control brought the snake to a local vet clinic Monday.
Police said the snake has not been claimed and they are hoping someone will come forward, adding they believe the snake could have simply escaped while its tank was being cleaned. Ball pythons are not poisonous, they added, but called the incident "not very common."
Bouchard said he's not sure where the snake came from.
"It's hard to say," he said. "I never knew a neighbour had a snake like this. I'm assuming it's from the neighbourhood."
Bouchard's neighbour, Minette Powell, posted a picture of the snake on social media Monday in a bid to find its owner.
