Sagacious Serpent

Someone whose screen name is the same as the gallery I show at asked me for another true animal story. Here it is, plus a bonus at the end:

I met a remarkable woman at a workshop in Tucson, Arizona. After one of the sessions we went to dinner at a local Indian (East) restaurant and she told this story amongst others: Her main work was in acclimating zoo animals to new and mostly far better environments when there was restructuring of many large zoos. There was a python at one such zoo that had been in a cage display of very small dimensions. So small, in fact, that there was no possibility of the poor creature ever unwinding to it's full 17' length. It was, I gathered, at the most coiled into thirds or less.

Anyway, the python was released into its new pen which would not only accommodate it's full length, but would allow it to move around freely in that state as well as climgb trees, etc. Unfortunately, the keepers found upon its release that it remained in the folded up configuration that it had become habituated to in the earlier cage. Mentally it could not comprehend the fact of its new freedom and remained psychicaly caged in a small space. How so like the majority of the human kind. What do you expect then, from a snake? So they called this lady to work with it.

Well, she did that, and spent three days with the creature, acclimating it to its new, greatly enhanced territory. After three days of massage and cajoling, she got it out to its full length in the sun. Soon thereafter, the python began to move about, tentatively at first, and then with obvious enthusiasm. Her work was done, and she went about her business in other parts of the world.

About a year later she happened to be in the vicinity of the zoo where she had worked with the structured serpent and went there to visit and see how the creature was faring. As she entered the zoo, she noticed something unusual. In the center of the place there was an elevated mound and there was a crowd of people there. She stopped and looked at the scene and soon discerned that there was some kind of a jungle movie being made up there, the set and crew being surrounded by a good number of onlookers. Suddenly, as if Moses was parting the Red Sea, the crowd opened to form a passage that was directly in line with her.

At this point in her story, as she did relating many of her tales, she said with great enthusiasm; "SO!! THERE I was!" she looked up at the commotion and saw some ripple of movement heading in her direction. IN short order she realized what it was and was somewhat astonished. In a few moments, the very python she had workd with was in front of her, with it's head up at the level of her face, weaving around and flicking its tongue! It had remembered her scent and recognized her as she came into the compound! She embraced the snake "hello," and to the amazement of the crowd, walked back up to the set with the snake trailing behind.

Could I invent something like this? But wait! I remember another python story that happened to me. It was again in Tucson, AZ. I lived in the old Freeman farmhouse off of First Avenue. There was a 7-11 at the corner and I often walked down there. Well, this one day I got there and there were five police cruisers. I knew the clerk who was outside having a cigarette, and commented "Another beer run, eh?" He said "No, you wouldn't believe it, what just happened!" I said, "OK, spill; a gunman, or what?" He said "Nothing like that. They just caught an eleven foot long python in front of the store. It took eight officers and animal control people to catch it and cage it. Strong sucker!" "You are B.S.ing me," I said. "Nope. Read about it in the paper tomorrow. Some guy's pet got away and slithered down here. People were freaking." OK, so I checked it out in the paper the next day, and sure enough, there was a pretty portrait of the python and its captors in front of the store. That was a week after someone's horse got loose in the alley by our house and the neighborhood turned out to see the doings.

Sensational cetaceans

I've never personally met a dolphin, though on a personality test I chose to be one if I had to be an animal. I've heard remarkable stories about dolphin behavior, and prompted by a photo of someone with a dolphin, I thought I would add to the record these stories that came to me from friends.One of them who lives in Providenciales (Turks and Caicos) told me that there was one there named "Jojo" who guided boats through rocky passages between the islands. It did that for years, until it's untimely death.

There was a lady who went to one of those "dolphin encounter" places on the East coast and was very disturbed because this dolphin kept bashing her in the side. She had to get out of the water. Soon she found out that she had a cancer at that spot which was discovered because she had the bruise checked.

A friend returned from Baja California. A couple by the pool told him of an encounter they had while boating in the Gulf. They were tooling along and suddenly found themselves surrounded by dolphins. The guy stopped the boat and told his wife "I'm going in to play!" he went in and the dolphins nearby stated roughhousing with him. It's what he wanted. He kept telling her "Come on in! They will be careful with you." She hesitated, but eventually went in. The dolphins treated her in an entirely different way. They must have picked up on the attitudes somehow. Amazing!

This one takes the cake, though, as far as I'm concerned. I heard it from a lady who did animal massage. She specialized in working with animals in zoos who had been adversely affected by captivity. Wish I kept her number. This was, actually, one of her less amazing stories: A friend of hers grew up in England, but her family had a beach house on the Gold Coast in Africa. They went there every summer for a couple of months. She got used to playing in the ocean and seeing many dolphins, some of which would come up to her in the water. Some years later she got married and did not go to the house for some time.She only went again when she had a two-year-old son, whom she took with her. Well, they were playing in the water, but she had him straddled, you know, like between her legs for safety. Well, this big dolphin comes up and parks in front of them and won't go away. She gets used to it and after a while gets up and playfully puts her son on the animal's back. It's right there, and what an opportunity to let him get a feel of something amazing, eh?Well, instinctively the kid grabs the dorsal fin. The second that happens, the dolphin bucks and takes off with the kid down the beach and then out into the water. The mother is panicking, screaming, out of her mind!! Finally, she can't see them anymore in the waves and she is just exhausted from screaming. She stops for a second and hears something familiar: she hears her son, somewhere out in the water, laughing and laughing and laughing! Soon, the dolphin returns with the boy astride. The mother grabs the kid, the dolphin squeals, and swims off.

Well, the next day, she's down at the beach with the kid again. That's what they do down there; the beach is the entertainment. So, she's in the water with the kid again, and this dolphin comes up again and keeps pestering her, nudging her with its side and nose. It's pretty obvious what's up: the animal wants the kid on its back. The kid is screaming, wanting on to the dolphin. Can you imagine the debate going on in this mother's head and heart? Well, guess what? To her own amazement, she finds herself putting the kid on the dolphin's back, and off they go! She's in tears, but again, there's the laughing coming from off the water, out there, somewhere! So what happens is that this becomes a daily routine, each day making a longer excursion into the sea, and it becomes, in my opinion, one of the most amazing stories of animal encounters ever. And that was the last summer they went to the beach house.