Python swallows cat in Florida backyard

Tampa Bay's 10 News ^ | Octobe 10th, 2006 | Associated Press

[Tulsa Ramjet]

Miami Gardens, Florida - Elidia Rodriguez of Miami Gardens had been looking for her year-old Siamese cat for two days when her son pointed out the bulging Burmese python slithering in her backyard.

Experts say that bulge in the 12-foot snake is probably the missing 15-pound cat.

Rodriguez got the cat last year as a post-hurricane gift. She named the cat Frances, after the storm.

The snake was spotted in Rodriguez's backyard yesterday.

Experts with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue antivenin unit says Frances wouldn't have stood a chance against the larger predator.

The snake was captured and taken to the Sense of Wonder Nature Center at AD Barnes National Park.

Earlier this month, authorities say a 13-foot python burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole.

[No Blue States]

[GladesGuru]

"Do you ever run across these things?"

My answer is "probably". Why "probably"?

Consider that such a snake is a biological mine field. A snake lays in wait for something to approach within a few feet so that the snake can bite it and thus obtain physical control of the prey animal.

Once such a hold upon the prey animal is obtained, the snake wraps coil after coil of snake around the prey to constrict breathing and so cause death.

It may interest you (and most certainly does interest me) that the smaller gators in my pond are all gone, as are the fish.

A snake trap is about to appear in my pond. Lots of verrrrrryy long steaks are expected in the future.

But as to your question of have I seen one, - not yet.

Are they nearby - most certainly.

Are they a risk to people? Children, more so than adults. But that will not bother ParcMan and his/her/its fellow travelers in the NGO crowd.

Here in the Swamp of Socialism, ParcMan's "endangered Florida Panther" (neither 'endangered, not specific to Florida - just a Texas varmint) the population explosion of such cats resulted in the de facto closure of the ParcPerson's "school" a couple of miles from my place.

The mothers weren't willing to risk their children having a "close encounter of the terminal kind" thanks to a panther. And they didn't seem at all impressed with the glib assurances offered by ParcPersons like Lil' Debbie, the Fat 'Crat from US Fish & WIldlife, ad nauseam.

Try googling articles by Jan Michael Jacobson particularly "The Gift That Eats People" if the issue of dangerous animals and government interests you.

Count on another "Invasive Species Control" bureaucracy being set up to 'manage the problem'. This means, when translated from agency baffle-gab to American English, that we will set up a whole new bureaucracy to deal with this problem.

I will deal with it with traps and a gun. Historically, that is what Americans did. They didn't wait for some goober from some gooberment agency to "solve their problem" for them.

Which, as the cat proves, will always be too late. That's why the cat is just a lump in a snake. Which is what I would be, and my fellow land owners, if the Lil Debbies of the world had their way.

They won't. Bet on it.

;-)

[Tulsa Ramjet]

SSSSSSSSSay my new little friend, what don't you get rid of the ssssssssssssssstupid bear Baloo, and hang out with meeeeeee?.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I hope kitty clawed up the python's insides some...

[sit-rep]

That snake is going to be a serial killer!!

[SWAMPSNIPER]

It is just a matter of time before the pythons spread to most of Florida. GladesGuru's part of the state is going to be a problem just by virtue of size. I suspect that the python population is great enough now that we will see a population explosion. You cannot stop every damned fool that decides to dump an unwanted pet out the window, and we seem to have plenty of damned fools.

[GladesGuru]

The school systems are turning out fools every year, and the agencies are expanding to provide jobs for them.

Time to start making whole agencies extinect by cutting their funding.

Who was the UberFool who first dumped Liberals out of some window here in Florida? Does anyone have any ideas?

Who would have - no, make that who could have had such bad taste in pets?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I don't think I ever saw a liberal in St. Johns County until about 1955, but the damn things breed like pythons!

[toddlintown]

Monty?

[GladesGuru]

As Gingrich said, Defund the Left - and we didn't.

Not that the rank and file Americans don't want to see teh agencies defunded, but the political class knows that if money stays in the citizen's hands, they are back to being mere officials, not wealthy officials.

[MotleyGirl70]

Reminds of The Simpons episode when they go to Brazil and an anaconda eats Bart. There is the outline of Bart standing up in its stomach.

Lisa says: "Mom an anaconda just ate Bart."

[GladesGuru]

A friend saw a very large King Cobra in the 'Glades. He called Mr. Haas at the Serpentarium and was told that another cobra had been reported near West Palm Beach.

As Hass said, let's pray they don't meet and turn out to be opposite sexes.

[Scythian]

"Poor cat!! I hope they kill that snake....and find the person responsible for letting it loose...."

Cat's are responsible for massive environmental damage including a major part of the loss of species in the United States. At least the python was NOT killing it for fun (as an act of evil would be) as a cat kills, no it was hunting food and only killing what it would eat. Good riddance cat - I'm sure all the creatures you killed for fun are smiling now.

[Scythian]

In fact. The cat probably saw the python moving and came over to kill it as it does all things that move. But alas ...

[wolfcreek]

Good Lord, them big snakes will eat anything! This is one reason why you should keep your pets from getting FAT.

[wolfcreek]

"That snake is going to be a serial killer!!"

or a Cat Burglar

[SWAMPSNIPER]

We have geckos competing with the anoles here. So far no big stuff. I just keep watching. It is about time for me to hit the Guana area, I can't handle the heat these days, but it is cooling down some. From the air, is that your place on Tamarind Hammock?

[sit-rep]

There was a thread a while back that involved a ten year old kid who threw the neighbors cat to an alligator. Yes, the alligator chowed. Folks here said the kid should be locked up for the rest of his life. "Statistics show these kids become serial killers..." I kid you not...

oh well...

[GladesGuru]

Part of the socialist plan to have goobers in gooberment agencies controlling your entire life is the use of what they call gateway crimes.

Possum Man was guilty of such a thought crime (lust) and the trendoid crime de jure is animal cruelty.

The argument is a correlation argument. Jeffery Dauhmer (any criminal will do) abused animals. Therefore anyone "abusing" an animal is a heinous criminal to be and goobers MUST INTERVENE! NOW ! ! !

The basic logic is as follows: 75% of all heroin addicts have a history of using the wicked weed. Therefore the wicked weed causes heroin addiction.

Sounds partially reasonable until one finds out that nearly 100 % of all heroin addicts have a history of using milk.

Correlation arguments are risky - very risky.

But, contrary to what some whining Liberal may tell you, Liberal abusers not only tend to commit fewer crimes, they are both more intelligent and far more insightful than the public at large.

On days when it is just too rough in the Gulf stream to go trolling for bill fish, one can always do some trolling on FR.

Calling the Viking Kitties, calling all Kitties - - ;-)

[Calpernia]

Trust in me, just in me, shut your eyes and trust in me