Catherine Palmer

Turns out I can't read if it's completely quiet.

I need a little bit of noise.

So I headed to the kitchen to get a drink because you can do that in the dark and quiet.

And I stopped in my tracks because there was a snake in front of me.

not a big snake, like a foot long, like maybe a baby snake, and the cat was pawing at it on the kitchen floor.

So this is one of those moments where you stop and you're trying to make sense of something that absolutely does not make sense.

So I assessed the situation.

There was a baby snake on the floor.

At least I assumed it was a baby.

It was very small.

The cat seemed to be involved in how it got there and oddly familiar with it.

And my nieces were known to have strange pets up in their room.

So I had to assume there was a mother snake that had a baby.

But at this point, I realized I know very little about the reproductive habits of snakes.

And with no internet access, this wasn't going to change.

So the only reasonable explanation is that this was a pet snake, or the baby of a pet snake, and I needed to keep it safe from the cat.

So three things were clear.

I was not going to touch this snake.

I did need to do something to keep the cat away from it.

And this was a perfect opportunity to become the favorite aunt.