Catherine Palmer

So at the height of this, there are 11 baby snakes in glass cages all over the kitchen floor.

This is now a full-time activity, just getting them oxygen.

And furthermore, it's not a big kitchen, so I'm using the baking dishes as stepping stones as I navigate this space.

I am all in, but it's okay, because really, all I have to do is wait for my nieces to come home and shower me in love and praise for what I have gone through to protect their pet baby snakes.

I'm kind of growing attached to my charges, and I hear the car, they're home, and my older niece comes in the door and she says, oh, not again.

This is not the greeting I expected.

And she and her sister unceremoniously lift up the baking dishes, grab the snakes, and throw them out the kitchen door into the forest.

So later, I would find that adult snakes come into their basement and lay eggs.

Now I know how snakes reproduce.

And the cat can't resist just depositing them all over the house.

So as we're starting to clean up, my sister-in-law turns to me and says, now, if this ever happens again, the look on my face must have made it clear this was never going to happen again.

So I settled in to wash 11 casserole dishes and look forward to going back to the city.