Python is surprise housewarming gift for Fayetteville tenant

Call the Cumberland County Animal Shelter, where the snake was brought Saturday after giving a woman quite a scare.

Bridget Miller with Animal Control took the call from the unidentified woman, who was moving into an empty apartment in Crescent Commons when she discovered the animal.

“She started screaming at the top of her lungs, and several neighbors came to her rescue,” Miller said. “She kept referring to it as a python. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, this has to be a big snake.’”

Turns out he’s a little guy – a 3-foot ball python. But with his constricting muscles, he’s still impressive.

Miller instructed the woman to have someone contain it in a box until an officer could get there. A neighbor, who did not want to give her name, said the previous tenants had moved out two weeks earlier.

Shelter attendant Jennifer Tracy said the snake might have been left behind intentionally or simply escaped.

“We don’t know how long this guy has been without food, what kind of condition he’s in,” she said. “So we’d rather hand him over to the experts.”

Tracy said the shelter is looking for someone who has experience caring for reptiles to adopt the snake, who isn’t as cute and cuddly as the dogs and cats available for adoption.

“Personally, I can take him or leave him,” she said. “But he seems to be a nice snake.”