ORRINGTON, Maine — Mr. Smithers apparently has slithered away from his home on Johnson Mill Road and his owner is worried.
A roughly 4-foot-long ball python, Mr. Smithers last was seen on Tuesday, Valerie Nason said Wednesday.
Nason said that her pet python went missing shortly after a gathering at her home at 592 Johnson Mill Road on Monday.
“I had him out because we had visitors for the Fourth of July weekend and all of the kids thought he was cool and wanted to have their pictures taken with him,” she said.
“So everybody was playing with him and passing him around. I just thought he was bothered too much, so I stuck him in his flower bed and when I checked on him an hour later he was still sleeping and then, boom, he ran for it,” Nason said.
“I just panicked and trudged through the grass and he doesn’t come when you call him and it was just terrible. He’s never spent the night outside and this is Day 2,” Nason said.
“I’ve had him for over seven years and believe it or not, he is a sweet, wonderful pet,” she said. “I’m worried. The thing is he can survive just fine but when it gets cold, he’ll be a goner. They can’t survive the winter,” she said.
Orrington Animal Control Officer Carla Brown agreed, noting that if the temperature gets down to 50 degrees overnight, Mr. Smithers could be in trouble.
Both Nason and Brown said ball pythons, also known as royal pythons, are harmless and that people should not be afraid.
“He doesn’t bite and you could just pick him right up and love him and hold him. If someone tries to chase him or scares him or stomps, he’ll just coil up because he’s scared,” Nason said, adding that her snake weighs about 10 pounds and that his diet consists of one tiny mouse each Wednesday.
The fact that ball pythons curl up into a ball when they feel threatened is how they got their name, according to several websites about the snakes.
Brown said there is no cause for alarm.
“Basically, he’s only a ball python. He’s not a dangerous snake. He’s not going to be out actively hunting for kids, cats, dogs. He’s gonna be looking for rats and mice, if anything, and he may not even be outside. He may still be in the house,” she said.
Nason said that her friend, Malerie Messer, posted a photo and information about the missing snake on an Orrington community Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon.
“We have garter snakes in the state that long and nobody panics over them, but just because the word python is coming into it, people are panicking,” Brown said, adding that some who saw the post about Mr. Smithers called emergency dispatchers with questions.
“When I left work there was like five comments and 10 minutes later there’s 120,” Nason said. “Absolutely, I am just shocked.”
When it comes to missing pythons, Mr. Smithers is not Brown’s first rodeo.
Another python was reported missing in Orrington three years ago. In that case, however, the snake was found curled up in a sleeping bag in a closet inside its home.
Nason said she isn’t sure where Mr. Smithers might have gone, but she doesn’t think it was to water.
“My house is surrounded by water,” she said. “Actually, I have a waterfall across the street. I have a brook that runs along two sides of my house. He can only go one way because he doesn’t really like to swim,” she said.
“If anybody sees him, I’m willing to drop whatever I’m doing to get him,” Nason said.
Anyone who has seen Mr. Smithers is asked to call Nason at 217-1733.