SSSsssssssss...............

I've just got home to see a letter from 14-year old Christiaan on the doormat, who's a bit sad because his pet snake has escaped. This creature is a 'Canadese Kousenbandslang' (this seems to translate from Dutch as a 'Canadian Stocking-bandage Snake'), which looks like this:

In his letter, Christiaan informs us that it is a non-strangling and non-poisonous type of snake. I'm quite happy about this, because the damn thing crawled over my feet in the garden the other day. Christiaan asks that if we happen to spot him, we need to throw a big bucket over him and keep him cool (apparently this calms him down). He doesn't give any tips about how to calm myself down after a bloody-great snake slithers across my bare feet. My advice to Christiaan would be to keep the lid on his snake tank, or just give up and buy a gerbil.