How I learned to stop worrying and love the snakes in my ceiling | Australian lifestyle

Fifteen years in the past, whereas perched on the again deck of my Nineteen Twenties tin and timber Queenslander dwelling in Brisbane, I realised I used to be being watched.I felt the hairs on the again of my neck stand on finish and I spun round to find a snake dangling from the lattice. Terrified, I rushed inside and locked the door. Clearly, concern just isn’t rational, or I might have understood that serpents don’t have arms.I like lizards. I’ve visited Indonesia’s komodo dragons and cuddled shinglebacks in Australia’s crimson centre however I’ve at all times been extra scared than seduced by snakes.Once I was rising up in nation Queensland within the Seventies, we frequently encountered venomous snakes – our tiny city even had a Black Snake Creek. Working round our again yard it was frequent to virtually journey over a lethal king brown. Parental recommendation: “Simply freeze. Keep watch over it. And sing out to Mum.”Mum would shout to Dad, who was a little bit of a Steve Irwin-type, and he’d seize a hessian bag, casually toss the reptile in, then escort it as much as the farm shed to eat the rats.‘Carpet pythons … are nice for the surroundings, as they eat bush rats, and preserve noisier neighbours like possums from transferring into roofs.’ {Photograph}: Christine Retschlag/The GuardianBefore residing in Brisbane, I’d by no means encountered a python, solely venomous snakes. My anxious mom understandably did a tough promote on the horrors of snake bites, lest considered one of her 4 kids succumb to their fangs. This gave me the identical sort of concern you’d get enjoying disguise and search as a child. You like the sport however there’s a component of adrenaline when discovered. Ought to I combat or flee?Quick ahead a number of a long time and I’m residing 4km from Brisbane’s metropolis centre, with a bushy again yard which I’ve intentionally grown wild to encourage possums, kookaburras, water dragons and sulphur-crested cockatoos. And, it turned out, 10 years into residing on the property, non-venomous japanese carpet pythons.A snake pores and skin left ‘hanging over the deck like stockings’. {Photograph}: Christine Retschlag/The GuardianOvercoming my terror of those new housemates was gradual. Critics say it’s improper to anthropomorphise an animal however watching the serene Sylvia slither from my ceiling into the cypress pine which overhangs my again deck was step one. By naming her – I assumed it was a she from her light vitality – and observing her I rapidly realized what a good looking and intelligent creature she was.I cherished how she would dislocate her jaw to yawn or when hungry. How she used her forked tongue to scent. I used to be fascinated when her eyes would go milky within the days earlier than she shed her pores and skin, a present she would go away hanging over the deck like stockings. On sizzling days she would stretch her ever rising girth alongside the again deck and permit me to run my fingers alongside the curves of her backbone.Sylvia ultimately grew too curvy to squeeze again into the ceiling cavity. Carpet pythons are territorial and, quickly after, one other arrived, then one other.Straight after Sylvia got here Son of Devil, or Shitty for brief. Sadly Shitty thought he was a taipan, one of many few Australian snakes which are literally aggressive, had exceptional eyesight and listening to, and would strike at my back-door glass at any time when he glimpsed me inside the home.For a quick second my concern returned and the again deck grew to become off limits, till I reminded myself that snakes, like people, all have completely different personalities. And that this was nonetheless a wild animal. From Shitty, I realized respect.There are snake catchers galore in south-east Queensland however many people select to dwell with our carpet pythons – even the grumpy ones. They’re nice for the surroundings as they eat bush rats, and preserve noisier neighbours like possums from transferring into roofs.Shitty has now moved on and I’m left with Slinky, a scrawny juvenile who’s, at this stage, a hopeless hunter. This can change and ultimately Slinky will depart my ceiling too. Whereas I’m undecided who’s lurking to maneuver in subsequent, I’m studying extra about these unbelievable, quiet creatures (it is best to see them climb) and I look ahead to the day one other sanguine serpent like my beloved Sylvia graces my again deck.