Slith the snake

Slith was my pet boa constrictor – all six feet of him.

I bought him on the spur of the moment for £40 that I really could not afford. But he came complete with vivarium. It was a bargain really.

Slith had had an interesting life in the entertainment industry. It appears that large snakes have some erotic import in the glamour industry. Slith had adorned the naked bodies of many lithesome ladies. There are probably a number of his photographs out there in cyberspace.

Slith liked people though he was not so keen on some women. He bit two of them. We think it was the perfume but perhaps it was a throw-back to his past life in the erotic industry?

Slith had to be fed on live mice.

The first time we did this we introduced the mouse into the vivarium and watched with interest. Slith coiled up around his branch and watched the hapless unaware creature. He flicked his tongue out to scent the animals. Then in a flash it was gone. The mouse was dead with a bite to the back of the neck and was wrapped in a powerful coil of snake.

We were relieved that it was so quick and painless. We were concerned that it was so quick that you did not see the strike. That made us nervous.

Slith was strong. If he wanted I reckon he could have broken your arm or strangled you. But fortunately he was friendly.

You always knew when he was getting annoyed; he’d move his head from side to side. He was sighting up for a strike. Whatever you were doing; you stopped.

He liked warmth and would often get out of his cage to wrap himself around the old wrought-iron radiator. Once he was wrapped around it you couldn’t prise him off. Once we found him coiled up in our bed. That gave us a bit of a start.

One of Slith’s favourite past-times was motor-bike riding; he could not actually ride one, of course, but he would wrap himself around me and I’d take him for a spin around London. He’d always hold his head up next to mine and face forward into the breeze. The faster I went the more he stretched out into the wind. He loved it.

I remember once pulling up alongside a London cabbie. He had his window open and looked over to find Slith peering at his from a foot away, his tongue flicking out. I’ve never seen a window go up as quick.

I put Slith with a friend while we went off on our travels. Unfortunately he bit someone and our friend gave him away.