Cedric Snake’s New Girlfriend!

“All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.” 
~ Mae West, Wit & Wisdom of Mae West

There is an enormous carpet python who lives in the roof of our farmhouse, and has done for many years. We christened him Cedric, after my maternal grandfather.

Last year Cedric had a girlfriend who visited often, and then laid a clutch of eggs in a shrubbery just by our kitchen door. She was a loyal and dutiful mother, and we fully expected to see her back this year.

But a younger, slinkier female has beaten her to it!

How do we know?

We arrived home on Thursday to see her newly-shed six foot skin hanging from the rafters at our front door.

I managed to pull the entire skin down, intact except for a small hole in one side. I’ve put it away for a friend of mine, Tracy, who makes drums and other shamanic tools. It’s the kind of thing she’d like.

It’s a very cool snakeskin. It even has the intact scales like little clear jewels that sit over its eyes. You can see one quite clearly in the next picture, that shows my finger stuck down the mouth of the snakeskin.

Late yesterday as Ben was putting the tractor away he found the young female, huddled up under some shelves in the shed, out of the rain and blustery weather. Her new skin is dark and shiny, and she has a happy bulge in her stomach from whatever has recently become her dinner.

The carpet python is an important totem for the Aboriginal people of our area, and it makes me happy to have so many of them living here at our farm.

It does make me wonder too, what happened to Cedric’s last girlfriend? (That’s her below.) I hope she’s not the jealous type!