Python Devours Family's House Cat
Miami, FL (United States):
Like any cat, Frances, a 1-year-old Siamese named after the hurricane, had a simple daily routine.
He slept, ate and enjoyed hunting lizards in the woods behind his owner's home.
Two days ago, Frances vanished.
His whereabouts possibly were revealed Sunday. A snake expert says Frances is the bulge inside a 12-foot-long Burmese python that trapped and swallowed the 15-pound cat whole, just feet from its backyard in Miami Gardens.
''We've been looking for him,'' a distraught Elidia Rodriguez, 66, said of her cat.
The snake was captured and taken to a nature preserve.
This marks the second time this month that a python in Miami-Dade has tangled with another animal with deadly results. Earlier, a 13-foot python had a run-in with an American alligator in Everglades National Park, and neither animal survived.
Why all the aggressive and free-moving pythons all of a sudden?
Capt. Al Cruz of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue antivenin unit said Sunday's case can likely be blamed on the recent rains.
''They are looking for dry land,'' said Cruz, who explained that climate changes affect pythons' life patterns.
Many pythons end up in the wild after being abandoned by their owners once they grow too big to handle; others are escapees.
How Frances, a gift to Rodriguez after last year's Hurricane Frances, apparently ended up in the python's grip no one saw.
But a missing animal and a bulge in the gut of a nearby snake makes for an easy equation.
A cat would have been no match for the python, much like last month's alligator.
Back in Miami Gardens, Rodriguez still clings to hope that Frances will walk through the door and that the mysterious bulge was another animal.
``I still would like to know for sure that it's him in the snake's stomach.''
Oct. 10, 2005
Carli Teproff & Luisa Yanez, Miami Herald
Miami, FL (United States):
Like any cat, Frances, a 1-year-old Siamese named after the hurricane, had a simple daily routine.
He slept, ate and enjoyed hunting lizards in the woods behind his owner's home.
Two days ago, Frances vanished.
His whereabouts possibly were revealed Sunday. A snake expert says Frances is the bulge inside a 12-foot-long Burmese python that trapped and swallowed the 15-pound cat whole, just feet from its backyard in Miami Gardens.
''We've been looking for him,'' a distraught Elidia Rodriguez, 66, said of her cat.
The snake was captured and taken to a nature preserve.
This marks the second time this month that a python in Miami-Dade has tangled with another animal with deadly results. Earlier, a 13-foot python had a run-in with an American alligator in Everglades National Park, and neither animal survived.
Why all the aggressive and free-moving pythons all of a sudden?
Capt. Al Cruz of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue antivenin unit said Sunday's case can likely be blamed on the recent rains.
''They are looking for dry land,'' said Cruz, who explained that climate changes affect pythons' life patterns.
Many pythons end up in the wild after being abandoned by their owners once they grow too big to handle; others are escapees.
How Frances, a gift to Rodriguez after last year's Hurricane Frances, apparently ended up in the python's grip no one saw.
But a missing animal and a bulge in the gut of a nearby snake makes for an easy equation.
A cat would have been no match for the python, much like last month's alligator.
Back in Miami Gardens, Rodriguez still clings to hope that Frances will walk through the door and that the mysterious bulge was another animal.
``I still would like to know for sure that it's him in the snake's stomach.''
Oct. 10, 2005
Carli Teproff & Luisa Yanez, Miami Herald
