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Growing up on a mountain farm - of course we had many animals - most of them only for profit - never for love. I never saw Hans or Liesel ever truly loving any of the many animals they kept. They purchased and sold, killed or slaughtered depending on needs for profits.
Even nice and cute Sealyham terrier one of my preferred pets was killed - shot - one day because of repeated fighting with the more profitable German boxers we had.
After i left home in the early seventies - the first pet i bought was a king cobra. In Bangladesh - working for the organization, i was living i a huge house with a best friend of mine - Peter. During the first few weeks after my arrival, one day i saw a Bengali women with a basket on her head - a snake charmer - every now and then she stopped, opened the basket and was playing flute to provocate the snakes into defensive position and play with them ... she had many different, also a kings cobra. I was fascinated by the kings cobra and the fear all had for such a snake. It is but another pet - like any other pets, like cats and dogs or elephants or sharks - years later i was hand-feeding sharks weekly in the Maledives while working there as a SCUBA divine instructor ...
My king cobra obviously loved me or at least my company ! She returned again and again from the garden into my bed room, every day latest late afternoon she was back in my room - to stay overnight !
So i purchased the kings cobra and brought her to my bed room. I intended to keep her in my bed room free to make her my guard and prevent theft. This king cobra was my first pet i ever purchased - my selection. I would have loved to have dolphins, wales or elephants as pets - already since early childhood, but i always hat the idea that all such pets need to be free and living in wilderness just coming into my home and garden to visit me daily and being free to go and enjoy freedom any time.
How to care for a king cobra ? i had no idea - nor did i know exactly what to feed her and how much and how ..
Of course i had a big garden that i maintained mostly on my own - with 400+ gladiolus, banana tree, jasmine, coconut palms, wild roses and much more - also vegetables of course but mostly flowers !
So i went into the garden to look out for any frogs and i remember the very first time i caught 5 frogs in a bucket and carried them all into my bedroom. My bedroom was huge for European people - may be 5 x 7 meters with adjacent bath, on two sides full size balcony all along my room. all over windows and doors to the balcony form the bedroom. Almost like a palace compared to what i had all my childhood. For Peter and myself we hat a total of 7 employees - it was the policy of our organization to hire as many local employees as possible to give jobs to as many as possible even if they had little to do. So we 2 had among others a cook, waiter ( butler ? ), cleaning boy, driver - i loved to drive most of the time myself - so did also Peter and we played a game, one was driving, the other shifting gear :-) ...
So i came with 5 frogs into my bedroom .. the floor was clean tiles ... and 5 frogs hopping around and scared to death because they soon realized the presence of snicky - thats the name i gave to the kings cobra.
The frogs where in there n my room for a full day and none of them missing. Same the second day - frogs and snake in my room, all free and no hunger or what ?
I realized that the frogs were faster on the tiles than snicky - so next day i moved one frog into the adjacent bath and locked snicky into the bathroom with the frog. The bath room was normal size like 2 x 3 meter or so - and yes there was the frog missing after a few hours. Finally. So i brought frogs into the bath room every day with snicky but nothing happened - she only eat 1 frog every 5 days. After i knew her dining schedule she got one frog every 5 days served in the bath room !
Of course i put a big pot - about 1 x 1 meter pot with a huge jasmine bush into my bed room to give snicky a natural environment to .. yes all she actually did in the bush was to change skin every once in a while. For the other part of her stay she had many preferences to hid and the preferences changed more or less daily. Sometimes she was just above the entrance door. Warning me of her presence with her hissing sound as soon as i opened the door. Another time she was in the wardrobe between bed sheets, or on top of the curtain rod.
One night - early morning - i was sleeping on the ground on my matrass half inside the room half on the balcony to enjoy the fresh air - i preferred fan only and never air con - and i woke up because i had a different feeling on my legs .. and snicky obviously needed warmth or just touch me or hug me her way ? i never knew but she was rolled on my legs under my bed sheet and sleeping there. Well why not - it was unusual for me because the first time in my life that i had a snake sleeping with me. But of course she selected my legs as her place - hence there never can be any danger - how would a cobra or any other animal ever be that stupid to kill what she loves and selects to stay with ? Only humans do such things - to kill their loved ones only human can have true ego.
Why she selected to stay with me ? I explain:
One day soon during the first several weeks, i was searching for snicky as usual and found no snicky. No cobra in my or under my bed, pillow, bed sheet, ward road, curtain rod, bath room, ... no where. Gone. Gone for hours and hours. I always checked first thing i did whenever i entered my bed room. I wanted to know where she is to assure i never step on her or shock her.
She was always kind enough to warn me of her proximity with her hissing sound. Of course i carried her like any other pet. She never bit me - i never gave her a chance to do so because i learned how to handle her when needed - but also i saw no reason to carry her around like other people "rape" pets by holding and carrying them even if they would prefer to run around or be left in peace. I left snicky in peace and just fed her.
Now she was gone .. was she ?
Many hours later - she was back ....
And thereafter every day she was gone for several hours in day time - and suddenly back in my bed room again. Day after day .. One day i saw how she did. One day a neighbor told me that a snake was coming out of our sewage pipe into the garden ...
In Bangladesh houses use to have no sewage tank - but a big metal pipe - may be 12-15 cm inside diameter from each bath room to the outside of the wall and then vertically down ending with an opening about 30 cm above ground. Actually it was a complex "pipeline" system - because we had 4 bedrooms for 2 persons :-))) all linked together and all having different openings above ground outside in the garden. She could have gone into any of the 4 bedrooms or stayed out in the garden or just go into freedom
Apparently she had all the freedom she wanted and obviously she preferred or wanted to come back to me. Until i left country for another assignment in Laos months later.
The purpose and reason i purchased her was two fold - one was to buy her freedom and the other was to have her guard me from thieves. Yes we had some thieves in our neighbor hood. Despite the fact that all houses had a night guard - such as we ... In one of my friends house nearby - they had a "Volkswagen" a traditional German beetle, spare parts had an import duty at that time of up to 300% - one morning their front window was carefully removed and missing - stolen !
So did snicky guard me ? Yes of course ! Fully even when absent in the garden !! All our local employees were simply frightened to death of the idea having to enter my room for whatever reason while a kings cobra was freely moving or resting inside.
So each time of of the boys wanted to make my bed, or clean my room, they first called me and i had first to search and hold snicky until they finished their job. And i was sure their fear was genuine fear - but their fear is their problem - your fear is our problem and your fear is your responsibility and only yours !!!! Fear is ego made and love is God made and all God made is made of love and all that is made of God love is made to love and never has cause or reason to fear anything at all. Fear always is proof of extreme ego and of karma - karma having done to others what the fearing one fears ! Hence the one fearing either dissolves in love whatever he has done and thus dissolves his karma of experiencing on his own body what he has done to others or he may experience what he fears and die of fear or die of his karma .. Ego either dies or is dissolved by love. Ego never survives whatever happens - N E V E R.
She was my animal guardian angel day and night .. :) - God is manifested in every animal - if that animal is natural and free.
Ego is getting killed by poisonous snakes and divinity protected and guarded by God. Snakes love love and never kill a source of love ! True love always gives full freedom and always cares, protects and gives shelter.
Hans