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The Snake Girl

Most people are afraid of snakes. They feel like that because snakes may be dangerous. Of course, not all of them are poisonous. Some snakes are absolutely harmless, but, still, people do fot like them. People in Australia, however, have learnt to live in harmony with snakes. Snakes are a natural part of the ecosystem, and they are treated with care and respet. In Australian cities you may encounter a snake when just walking along the street. Australians usually say that it is just part of their life.

Snakes are protected in the country. If people find a snake in their house or back yard, they call a handler service to remove it. Handlers (or snake catchers) are special people who deal with snakes. A handler arrives at the house and relocates the animal to a safe place. No snake is ever harmed. All handlers are trained volunteers. They are also members of the Wildlife Service that rescues animals. Ms. Alati, aged 25, was one of them.  

Once, on her day off from the office where she worked as an accountant, Ms. Alati was cooking dinner. Suddenly, she found out that she had run out of spices. Ms. Alati hurried to the nearest supermarket. Her house was on the outskirts of Sydney, near a large bushland area, full of snakes. In spite of that, the way to the supermarket never seemed any dangerous to Ms. Alati.

When Ms. Alati entered the supermarket, she headed for the grocery shelves. She reached out for pepper, lemon spices and bazil and suddenly heard a low hiss. She turned her head and saw a snake. It was only 30 cm from her face. A two-meter python was slowly slithering out of the spice shelves. The woman stood frozen because she did not expect to see a snake in the supermarket.

The snake was looking straight into the woman’s eyes and moving its tongue. Its body with a diamond pattern looked graceful and magnetic. Ms. Alati thought she could hear the snake’s words “Help! Take me outside, please”. The scene was like the zoo episode from Harry Potter film in which the boy talked to the snake. No one else was around but Ms. Alati remained calm and focused. Unfortunately, she could not speak the snakes’ language and couldn’t comfort the python.  

Ms. Alati knew that pythons were strong but they normally did no harm to people. She was familiar with snakes. A trained snake handler, Ms. Alati had rescued about 20 of them before. Because of this, her friends would often call her ‘the snake girl’. After filming the snake, Ms. Alati called the shop staff and said she could help them get it out.

She went home to take a snake bag and then returned to the supermarket. She trapped the snake on the tail and it just slithered into the bag. The staff took plenty of photos of the trapped snake, some of which were later posted on the local media. Then Ms. Alati released the python into the bushland, away from the living area. The snake was returned to its natural habitat. Ms. Alati said she hoped the python would never ‘go shopping’ again.