Baby, a 12-foot python, is discovered two days after its owners reported it missing. It appeared to have eaten.
By TAMARA LUSH
Published August 31, 2003
TAMPA - Baby is back.
The 12-foot, 125-pound Burmese python who went missing last week in a north Tampa neighborhood was found late Friday under a truck across the street from his home.
Baby's owners, Wendolyn Garland and Charles Mertz, called police Wednesday.
The door to the snake's cage was wide open, and Baby was nowhere to be found.
The snake was shedding its skin and hadn't eaten in a few weeks - Baby eats two rabbits every two weeks - and its owners said Baby could be dangerous to small animals and neighborhood pets.
Pythons kill by constriction and are typically found in India and China, although some people in the United States keep them as pets.
Mertz bought Baby a year and a half ago at a pet store in St. Petersburg. The snakes are not illegal to own.
Thursday and Friday passed with no evidence of Baby.
At about 10:30 p.m. Friday, Garland said, her neighbor from across the street spotted the brown-and-black snake under her truck.
Garland and Mertz coaxed the snake out from under the truck and put it back in its cage, with extra security.
Baby had finished shedding its skin, Garland said, and had found something for dinner.
"Evidently, he had eaten," she said. "Maybe a possum or something."
- Tamara Lush can be reached at 813-226-3373 or at lush@sptimes.com
