THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 10, 1996 TAG: 9608100261
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 50 lines
Kathy Skirnski couldn't believe her sleepy eyes.
She had been reading a scary novel about a snake, and suddenly there was one on the floor of her condominium.
A big one.
After her dog's curious yips summoned Skirnski from under the covers late Thursday, she crept into the living room to investigate. And there, just in front of her 2-year-old Labrador mix's growling snout, was a coiled 3 1/2-foot boa constrictor.
``I almost died,'' Skirnski said. ``I don't do bugs and snakes and things.''
She retreated to the bedroom to call her brother, who arrived armed with a wooden cane and enough confidence to scoop up an ordinary, pencil-sized garter snake, which, he was certain, would be the offending critter. But the reptile was a bona fide boa, and the cane didn't seem like the choice wrangling instrument.
They dialed 911.
Skirnski, a Womble Realty agent whose voice mail bills her as a ``Personal Realtor Extraordinaire,'' waited for the police while Dusty the dog chased the snake into the bottom of a carpeted cat tower.
Officer David Cook, patrolling nearby, was intrigued by the dispatcher's description of what was happening on Marsh Duck Way.
``She said, `There's a woman locked in her bedroom because there's a snake in her house, and she says it's not hers,' '' Cook recalled Friday. ``That sounded interesting.''
Cook commandeered the cane and took the snake into custody just as a backup officer arrived.
The boa surrendered without incident.
Skirnski doesn't know how the reptile slithered into her home, but guesses it may have made its way through the walls when workers were doing plumbing renovations. She thinks it was probably an escaped pet.
``These two brave officers dared to take on the snake on their own,'' she said. ``They rescued a damsel in distress, I guess.''
And Dusty the dog gets her praises, too, Skirnski said.
``He was the runt of the litter that no one wanted,'' she said. ``My brother calls him a chicken dog. But I don't want to hear that anymore. She's a hero now.'' ILLUSTRATION: COURTESY DAVID COOK
Kathy Skirnski's dog spotted the boa and woke her. She called her
brother - and they called the police. Officer David Cook took it
away. by CNB