Coiled in the loft

A bright side to the unwelcome guest was that the mice vanished

Our cat, Garfield, recently developed a fascination with the garden shed. This repository of odds and ends is filled with gardening equipment, including pipes, spades, brooms, rakes, and watering cans. He stood at the entrance, transfixed by something at the back of the shed. My daughter Lily followed his gaze and promptly retreated with a gasp, hurrying into the house.

I had been watching from the window and accosted her as she entered. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Why the excitement?"

"It's a cobra!" she whispered. I queried her whisper, and she replied, "It might hear me."

I went to the shed and looked in but all I saw was the middle portion of the snake which looked like any snake. "It looks like a rat snake," I said." Are you sure it's a cobra?" 

Lily insisted she had seen the distinctive design on the back of its head. I fetched my phone to capture evidence, careful not to use the flash and startle the reptile, which was slithering about, perhaps trying to find a snack. After some effort, I managed to take a side-view photo. As I clicked, the snake turned and seemed to gaze directly at me. I clicked again and then waited for it to open its hood to prove that it was the venomous creature we suspected it to be. It did not oblige and disappeared into the gardening paraphernalia. 

Our local snake catcher requires a photograph before attending to a call. His experience had taught him not to trust panicked callers who think all snakes are the venomous kind. Needless to say, he had been misled by false alarms in the past. Since we couldn't obtain a clear picture, we chose not to summon him, hoping the snake would wander off as mysteriously as it appeared.

Later in the day, Lily went to the attic to fetch something. She heard a rustling noise and to her horror, she saw that it was our friend, the cobra, nestling in a stack of palm fronds. She turned and ran down the stairs, remembering to close the attic door as she went. 

We gave the snake a couple of days to vacate the premises and then cautiously ascended to the attic. There was no sign of it in the huge junk-filled room. It could be anywhere among the things stored there for decades. 

It's been over a month now. We haven't seen the snake leave. It could still be up there. One bright side is that we no longer hear the mice scurrying about in the attic.