There is something primordially alarming about the shape of a snake: we instinctually tense when we see one. Seeing one in a toilet, however, is the stuff of nightmares. This must be how Bruce Ahlswede felt when he visited his favorite Starbucks in San Antonio and saw a snake on the toilet. Thinking, at first, it was a toy placed by a prankster, he thought again when the snake began to move.
“I said ‘Hey you’ve got a snake in your bathroom and she [his wife] is kinda freaking out,’” Alshwede told KSAT.
Soon, staff, the man, and his wife crowded the snake, which was probably more scared then they were. Judging from the picture the wife snapped, it was a mere non-poisonous rat snake. And you can wonder what our species has come to when we live in such a technological bubble with perpetual artificial environments that when a little bit of nature invades our space, it changes our whole day and sense of bearing. It’s just a little snake!
Nevertheless, when Michelle Ahlswede posted the pic on her internet page, she said “A lot of people were really freaked out and some said ‘thanks a lot, I was just getting over my phobia.’” For those afraid of snakes, which, along with spiders, are among the most common of phobias, stories about them coming out of toilets, attacking you when you aren’t looking and in portions of your body you’d least like to be attacked – is a nightmare. Which can lead to some interesting pranks.
When Starbucks called for specialists to handle the snake (why couldn’t any self-respecting male employee handle this?), they determined that the environment was safe, though the snake had disappeared, perhaps going along the pipe in the wall, and has never been caught. Potentially, the reptile could return.