"I think that's a fang..."

This is a joint blogging effort, on the parts of myself and one Anna Horkey. It all started when Callie (one of the Taiwanese English teachers) burst into the office with news of a snake in her classroom. Our reaction (or lack thereof): Stare blankly. Maybe a nod. Eventually two of us humored her enough to follow her into the room. The rest of this story was only heard, rather than experienced, because both Anna and this typist were ambivolent. We didn't need to see this snake. We've seen snakes.

Well, so two of our boys went in there and poked at the snake, who was hiding underneath the unit of cubbies, in order to get him to pop out the other side. They, like us, were assuming garden snake. Apparently everyone forgot that we are in Tropical Asia. The boys poked the snake onto some upturned tape underneath the cubbies, where it stuck. They extracted the creature, which was longer than expected. Something was amiss, but being unable to put thier finger on exactly what, they continued to take care of the problem. They got a little more skittish when the "problem" flared, turning out NOT to be a harmless garden snake, but rather a cobra. It was then that they were struck with a sudden awareness of their peril. Happily, the tape kept the cobra on a short leash until he was contained, and we're unclear about the apparatus and method, other than there being a mop involved. But soon he was in a box, and Calvin-the-all-pupose-fix-it-man was quickly on hand. At least he looked like he had done this before.

The lesson here: don't poke.