More than a week after vanishing from her Windsor, Ontario, home, a ball python named Peanut was discovered alive in the city's sewer system, leading to an unexpected reunion with her owner.
What happened?
Connor Russette, a Windsor resident, said his three-and-a-half-foot-long ball python, Peanut, disappeared sometime after a feeding at about 8 p.m. on May 13, according to Global News.
When he checked the enclosure the next morning, the snake was gone.
"I look up and the first thing I see is no snake in this enclosure," Russette said. "I looked everywhere for the snake."
He suspects Peanut somehow ended up in the toilet, but he still does not know how she got out.
On May 22, Jeff Miller, the chief operator at Windsor's Little River Pollution Control Plant, recovered the python from a collection bin.
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The snake was later turned over to the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society that day.
After seeing the humane society's post about the recovered python, Russette went to find out whether it was his pet.
"I walked in, I looked at it, soon as I'd seen the head of its little discolouration, I'm like 'Yep, that's Peanut,'" he said.
Why does it matter?
Animals do not often survive trips through sewer infrastructure.
Ed Valdez, the City of Windsor's executive director of pollution control, said, according to Global News, that snakes can show up in the sewer system but often do not survive.
He called finding a live animal in the system "an extreme, rare occasion" and said he had never seen it happen in his 16 years with the city.
Lynnette Bain, executive director of the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society, said animals are held for a period before they might be adopted out, giving owners a chance to reclaim them, according to Global News.
Peanut is scheduled for a veterinary checkup after returning with some cuts and, in Russette's words, looking "rough," though he said she may be back to joining him on outings again this summer.
What are people saying?
"I'm extremely happy that I found her," he said.
Bain said the humane society's goal throughout was reunification.
"We definitely aim to always reunite animals with their homes if possible," she said. "This snake was highly socialized, so it's definitely somebody's pet. It loves people, I will say that."
Russette is already looking ahead to better days with Peanut.
"Now I got the snake, the snake's back, now we can do our adventures," he said.
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