The short version: The cobra has been caught by our chief of security (bless him with everything’s that good in life) from our garden and Bomba has taken it away. Nobody died.
The long version:
This morning was pandemonium in the house. The Monsters had sprayed all over both bedrooms, and on the cushioned bed headboards too. They were all too restless.
Last night, I barely slept too, kept waking up to check the front door. It seemed unlikely if anything could slide in, but you’d never know. Minnie was in the house, I could not get her upstairs. So there was some hissing between Misty and Minnie. And believe me, hissing isn’t exactly a sound you’d want to hear last night.
Gerald was perhaps the happiest cat all night because he lay right next to me on the bed all night. But he wasn’t so happy this morning when I put both he and Misty in Bunny’s Place. His incessant whining is quite difficult to bear.
Last night, Ming-Yi and husband both scrutinised our CCTV footage and told me what they saw. It is very strange, but I think because of the intense fear, my brain blocked out the worst of the experience and I could not recall it at all.
All I remembered was: I drove in, I exited my car with my groceries and I saw it, then I went into panic mode and walked to Stargate2 to enter the house through the Catio. That was all I remembered.
But that wasn’t what happened and CCTV footages don’t lie. One big part was “erased” from my memory.
What Ming-Yi and husband saw from the CCTV footage was: I drove in. They saw the snake slither from our bonsai tree towards the porch. I could not have seen this as it was dark even though the porch light was on. Then, I exited my car with my groceries and walked to the shoe bench. I sat down to take off my shoes, and that’s when I saw it and panicked. Then only I quickly walked over to Stargate to enter through the Catio.
From where I sat down to take off my shoes and where it was – that’s barely 1 metre. Ming-Yi said it postured when I sat down. It also postured when husband opened the front door; just the wooden door and not the grille because I had already raised the alarm. If he had opened the grille, it could have been a total disaster.
That is barely 1 metre away. It was a cobra and it postured, according to the CCTV footage and I don’t recall any of it at all. My brain must have erased it from my memory for my own sanity. The brain has a strange way of doing things, I guess.
I was very, very, very lucky.
The thing is, we all know we should not disturb, much less threaten any animal and we certainly won’t. But what if we accidentally do it and in the process, we get bitten…and die? No person in their sane mind would threaten an animal.
In this case, I just sat down on the bench and it already postured. That was totally unintentional on my part. Or worse, what if it’s hiding somewhere, say, under a pile of clothes and you collect the clothes?
Thank goodness I had all these screen doors and screen windows installed some time last year. I don’t think it could have entered our house, but then again, I remember as a teenager, when we lived in Kuala Kangsar, I saw this snake “seep” in through two pieces of glass in our cupboard.
Let’s get back to what happened today.
So, after daybreak, I knew I had to get the Monsters back to the Catio. It was light and we will monitor them. Gerald and Misty have to go to Bunny’s Place with the Blondies.
There was so much cleaning to do because the Monsters had sprayed all over both rooms. There was no problem getting them back to the Catio but believe it or not, Minnie is still inside the house now. Now, she doesn’t want to go back to the Catio. Sigh…
It was quite easy getting Gerald and Misty into Bunny’s Place. But Gerald mewed for hours and hours. He just wants to go back out. I couldn’t let him go. Not yet.
Our chief of security is a very helpful and capable gentleman named Murugan. I had contacted him last night (he was already off-duty) and told him about the snake. Murugan told me that if I saw it this morning, to just let him know, he knows how to catch them; he has the tool. He asked for any photos so that he could see the reptile, so I told husband to send him the video and photo.
Murugan dropped by by mid-morning and I quickly opened the gate and let him in. I showed him where I had seen the reptile. He knew because he had seen the video. Then, he looked around the garden and pointed to the pandan bush. He said “it is there”.
He just knew it was there. He didn’t see it, but he knew.
Husband and I thought it had already gone away, probably through the drains back to the monsoon drain outside our area. There is a huge monsoon drain and that’s where they live, we know. Of course that was my hope too, that it would have gone “home”.
Murugan said “it is there”. So he went to get his tool. I doubted it because last night, Civil Defence and Bomba had poked that pandan bush and checked thoroughly. They had not found anything at all. It was dark, no doubt, but each one of them had LED lights.
The pandan bush is next to the garbage compartment.
I told Murugan we were planning to remove the pandan bush already so please feel free to “tarik semua keluar”.
Murugan started pulling out all the pandan plants. I still did not dare to go out. I was still terrified. Jayden was in the house and I also had to stay with him.
One by one, the pandan plants came out, then I saw Murugan poking and poking and in just minutes, I caught a glimpse of him taking the reptile out with his tool. He won’t kill, he will only catch.
Oh my…I wish my brain would erase what I saw.
Murugan told me to quickly call Bomba. I did, but of all times, my phone failed me and the other side could not hear me. Husband was out buying things, so I quickly texted him to call Bomba, and I also asked a neighbour to help call Bomba.
By then, neighbours had gathered around to see Murugan’s prized catch.
All these plants are going to go. Sorry, plants. We cannot take the risk anymore.
Bomba took some time to arrive. They confirmed it’s a cobra. I asked the neighbours who had gathered around. One said it’s grey. Another said it’s dark brown. From what I know, the King Cobra is brown with yellow markings. I told husband to ask Bomba if it’s a King Cobra and they said no.
The abang Bomba just took it with his bare hands and put it into a plastic bag. That’s all. I hope they will release it in the jungle.
Last night’s reign of terror ended at 10.37am this morning.
That means the reptile spent all night in our garden, probably in the pandan bush. If that’s not scary, tell me, what is?
Right now, our gardeners are here removing our plants. It IS a matter of life and death.
Our heroic security chief, Mr Murugan.