Traumatic Tuesday!

The two words that are heard most often in our home are 'Oh Basil!', followed by one of the following:

A scream if he has suddenly jumped on my back while I am bending over weeding in the garden or has tried to climb up Rob's back while he is in the bathroom.
A sigh if he has brought a mouse in to play. That gets us into 'MouseMode' with a plastic bowl and a fishing net.
A laugh if he has become one of Alfie's toys and is being dragged round the lounge by his ears.
Or a surprised tone if he simply arrives in the house looking innocent!

Basil checking the washing machine! (All pics thanks to Rob)

So, last Tuesday afternoon when I was sitting at my computer writing my latest blog about the feral cats and I heard every bird in the neighbourhood shouting, my first thought was 'Oh Basil, what now?'
My second thought was that a baby mossie (sparrow) had fallen out of the nest that is precariously constructed in the bougainvillea shrub on the corner of the veranda. My third thought was that Basil had braved the thorns and was peering into the nest doing some window shopping so to speak. So I went out to see.

Look carefully, see the eye? A male Boomslang.

And saw.
A long green boomslang winding its way into the top of the bougainvillea with about seven excited mossies shouting at it.
So, I yelled at Rob and herded Alfie and Basil back into the house. Next step was to phone Tanya Heald, that wonderful lady from HOW Wildlife Rescue who had removed the cobra from the garden behind us a while ago. She was on her way!

Now you see it!

By then our neighbour and a friend had arrived, so we positioned them around the area to make sure that it didn't disappear, and I went upstairs to stand on the veranda to make sure that it didn't climb onto the roof! Interestingly, Emma our neighbour, had phoned Tanya that morning as she had a boomslang in her bougainvillea!

Tanya and her assistant.

Tanya arrived, on crutches! But she had an assistant with her, ready and willing to take on the task. She was amazing, she grabbed it by the tail, hung on, and then Tanya flung her crutches to the ground and hobbled in to help!

In you go!

In no time at all the snake was safely in a box and they were off to release it. I asked how far they took it and she said twenty kilometres.

Gotcha!

I asked her to add another five, just in case it was a homing snake!