RSPCA Friends of West Hatch Newsletter Autumn-Winter 2018 | issue 15 | Page 8

Snakes&ladders: tales from the field
by Chief Inspector Jennifer Ride
Before I took up the post of Chief Inspector
in February this year I had been an Inspector
in the Hampshire group for 17 years. Having
covered every patch in that group over
the years I have some stories to tell and I
have been asked to share some of the most
amusing ones with you!
but through hand signals communicated
to me that there was a large snake in her
basement. I entered the property and as the
occupant had refused to come back in to
show me where the basement was I crept in
by torchlight as no lights had been left on in
the property. I found the basement and the
steep metal stairs that led into a dark abyss
and was met by a strong musty odour.
I have to admit to being nervous as snakes
were never my favourite animal to be called
to collect but with snake hook and pillow
case in hand I pushed forward. I got to the
bottom of the stairs and turned right to see
the only thing in the basement which was
a small fridge whirring away in a gap in the
wall. As my torchlight scanned around to
this fridge I saw a very large snake on top of
it move lightening fast and disappear from
sight. I realised at this point that my pillow
case was not up to the job of confining this
snake and returned to my van to grab a
larger reptile sack.
The occupant at this point,
thinking I had got the snake in the
pillow case, ran away shouting
“Snakey, Snakey, Snakey!”
At about 2am one very cold November night,
whilst I was on-call overnight, I received a
phone call from our RSPCA National Control
Centre requesting I attend a property in
Southsea as the occupant had found a huge
snake in her basement and was refusing to
go back into the property with her children
until I had removed it. When I arrived at
the terraced house I met a lady and her
family who were not able to speak English
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I then had to show her the empty bag and go
back into the property with a bigger sack and
a heart that was beating very fast. I could
not identify the snake initially but when I
found it curled around the fridge coils and
striking at my hands every few seconds I
identified it as a very angry Rat Snake. I had
gloves on and got hold of the snake but the
snake made a dash for the large crack in the
brickwork and got half way in this gap when
I realised that there was no way I could go
and tell the occupant that the snake was