The last thing you expect to find as you're leaving a nursing home, perhaps after visiting your gran or your mum's Aunt Agnes, is a giant snake slithering around the car park.
Of course, the word "giant" is relative, but we figure that a three foot long corn snake counts. If you were outside the Ashton Lodge Nursing Home in Sunbury last month, we're sure you'd agree.
The police and RSPCA were called after the snake was spotted under parked car. Fortunately, the two PC's who arrived at the nursing home knew just what to do and had the snake safely captured before the RSPCA arrived.
PC Sandra King, one of the two on the scene, is a snake owner and is familiar with capturing wily escapist snakes and returning them to the safety of their cages:
"Corn snakes are extremely good escape artists that can get out of the tiniest of gaps, but they don't usually roam too far from home, so someone in the Sunbury Cross area will be missing a much loved pet."
Instead of inspiring terror in the nursing home residents, they were apparently all very interested in the snake and took the opportunity to say hello and give it a stroke.
If you're missing a snake (and we really hope that only one person in the Sunbury Cross area is missing a snake), you should get in touch with the RSPCA who are keeping the escapee snake safe.
Corn snake photo taken from Nick Atkins Photography's Flickr photostream
