Another one for the Bestiary: Boa in the Bog

[dolorous_ett]

I just found this on the BBC webpage, and really couldn't resist sharing this with you. Who could? (well, with the possible exception of the good people of Didsbury...)

Boa constrictor found in toilet

Other news: I have writer's block on my words-and-chickens story, and am almost certainly going to miss then deadline. Though I anticipate a return of the Muse once the deadline's well past.

I also intend to post something on the new George R R Martin book - have started to do so several times, but it's surprisingly hard to stop myself spilling the beans for people who have to wait for it. Basically, it's a good book, and money well spent. Now I am craving A Feast for Crows, which is going to be at least another year. There's no pleasing some people, is there?

Comments

[swythyv.livejournal.com]

However a resident who came face-to-face with the snake - thought to be female - on his bathroom floor managed to trap it by coaxing it into a bucket.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals (RSPCA) said it was not uncommon for snakes to be found in household sewage pipes.

RSPCA regional exotic animals co-ordinator Jimmy Ratcliff said: "It would have no problem travelling up and down the waste pipe and has probably been eating rats from the sewer."

Now you see, if Moaning Myrtle had kept her head like that, she wouldn't still be in the first floor loo.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I hadn't considered the Myrtle angle, I confess! I was thinking more of Nagini, who I suspect is going to be needing a new home in the not-too-distant future...

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

I find that picture hugely disturbing and may well have nightmares now ;-)
It's also a bit inconsistent, isn't it? If the resident caught the snake in a bucket, what's it doing in the toilet bowl? Has it just been poured back in there to scare us? (Not to mention the fact that they've called it Keith despite the fact that they think it's female - and what sort of name is Keith for a 3m boa, anyway???)

I hate writer's block. I have it for a seminar paper I'm due to be giving in a couple of weeks. Eek. Eeek. Eeek...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

It's also a bit inconsistent, isn't it? If the resident caught the snake in a bucket, what's it doing in the toilet bowl? Has it just been poured back in there to scare us?

I wondered that. Perhaps the BBC has an archive picture of a snake in a toilet that they always drag out for such stories? Which of course raises the alarming possibility that there might be more than one...

And agree with you completely about the thoughtless naming of the snake - Nagini's a pretty rubbish name, but it certainly beats Keith hands down. Especially if they think it's a female - if they really wanted an utterly prosaic name they could always have called it Lesley until they were sure...

Hope the writer's block wears off soon! If it's a professional matter it usually does in the end...

[swythyv.livejournal.com]

I figured Nagini's name was a play on "Naga," the mythical reptilian beings. But then I've always stored far too much mythical-beast information. For instance, thanks to that bit, I can hardly look at a Naugahyde furniture advertisement without cracking up.

Boysohboys they're hard to skin, but once you get it finished, they last forever! Stain resistant, too.

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

I think the she-cobra in Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is called Nagini. Or is it Nagina? Nag just means snake, iir...

love the idea of mythical sofas...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

In Textualsphinx's Snape-romance (whose name escapes me, which is scandalous as it's one of the best of its type around), Snape had had the skin of Nagini used to reupholster a very swish and stylish couch he had inherited from his aunt.

I suspect that this was the fic that spawned a thousand InteriorDecoratingGod!Snape stories... but never mind. It was a very nice sofa.