A metre-long snake is forcing tenants in a Toronto highrise to face their fears as they wait to discover where the escaped pet is hiding.
Residents have been warned about the missing albino California king snake, which is not venomous, but which can go a week without eating.
The apartment building at 100 Wellesley St. E. in Toronto’s downtown is more than 20 storeys tall.
“I can’t go to the bathroom without thinking it might be in the toilet or something,” said Karynah Zeh, laughing. “Which is probably totally untrue, but you don’t know, right? All those stories that scared you when you were a little kid.”
Zeh found out about the missing snake Wednesday when she read a sign stuck on the wall beside the elevator that warned the pet was lost in the building.
She’s a costume designer and has piles of clothes in her apartment organized for an upcoming show.
“Every time I pick stuff up I’m like, ‘What’s under there? I don’t know!'”
‘Is it any danger to our cats?’
A memo on the tenants association website from the building’s management says that the snake has orange and white markings, a very small head, and is between three to four feet long.
“If you see this snake, please contact the office,” it says.
Resident Helen Buttle wanted to know what it eats. “Is it any danger to our cats?” she asked CBC News.
Liam Grin, with the Menagerie Pet Shop in Toronto, said it does eat animals, but nothing as large as a cat. A mouse would be more likely, he said.
Grin said the snake will probably enjoy its freedom curled up.
“Underneath the fridge, underneath the stove, where it’s nice and warm, where there’d be a heat source,” he said. “That or a little dark, tiny, tight crevice that they can squeeze into.”
When they bite, it’s little more than a nip or pinch, he said.