EDMONDS — It was a case of finders, but definitely not keepers.
When Rusty Bennett found a nearly 4-foot-long snake in his back yard Sunday, he first wanted to make sure it wasn’t venomous.
After a call to 911, an Edmonds police officer and an animal control officer arrived. Bennett and his wife, Colleen, were assured that the pale orange-and-white snake was a corn snake — and wasn’t deadly.
The officers quipped Sunday that the snake was “found property,” and asked if the couple wanted to keep it if the real owners couldn’t be located. The Bennetts weren’t keen on that offer. A snake in the grass was more than enough excitement.
Luckily for all concerned, the big snake is back where it belongs, at the home of a neighbor the Bennetts don’t know. That man, known to some neighbors as someone who keeps snakes, wasn’t home Sunday afternoon.
Edmonds Police Sgt. Mike Blackburn said Monday that the lost-and-found story has an amazing twist.
“The owner of the snake was surprised to hear from the animal control officer because that snake escaped eight months ago,” Blackburn said. “So he was quite surprised the animal was still alive.”
Blackburn said the snake’s owner faced no penalties related to the reptile’s escape.
For Bennett, 51, the incident turned an afternoon of chores into a story to tell. “It was an interesting occurrence,” he said. “I actually did step on the tail of it — kind of freaky.”
Bennett was out washing windows and screens, and some of the screens were behind a woodpile. “My eye caught a shape and color, something odd,” said Bennett, who inadvertently stepped on the tail hidden by grass. “His head was curled around under his body. I knew it was foreign, not out of the woods around here.”
With his cell phone, he called his wife inside the house, and the call to 911 was made.
Tabatha Shoemake, the animal control officer, told the Bennetts she believed the animal to be a type of candy cane corn snake, almost an albino. “It’s not venomous,” Bennett said. At first he thought it might be a copperhead, which does have venom.
Bennett said the snake reared its head but wasn’t aggressive. To keep it from escaping into the woodpile before police arrived, he grabbed a tent pole and moved the snake to the middle of the yard. Shoemake put the snake in a box, and a note was left at the neighbor’s house.
At Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, spokeswoman Gigi Allianic said corn snakes are docile, and are used in the zoo’s educational programs. She was surprised a corn snake survived months in the cold. “We have temperature guidelines for taking them outside,” she said.
Corn snakes are native to the South, said Scott Petersen, whose Reptileman shows are presented at area schools. Petersen, a former biology teacher, runs the Washington Serpentarium reptile zoo on U.S. 2 east of Monroe.
With their body fat, some snakes can live a year without eating, he said. Corn snakes — a common rather than scientific name — are popular pets. “They’re probably the friendliest snakes,” Petersen said. Corn snakes kept in captivity are usually fed rodents, he said. If a corn snake bites you, Petersen said, “it’s just a pin prick.”
Blackburn said the runaway snake spent Sunday night at a kennel the Edmonds Police Department contracts with for holding lost cats and dogs. By midday Monday, it was back home.
Petersen said a corn snake can live 30 years — plenty of time to go looking for adventure.
“Snakes are good escape artists. They can push with their nose,” Petersen said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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