naomi_jay | "He went off the deep end and became a mad snake"

So we're eating our dinner and watching Castle and otherwise minding our own business, when there's this knock on the door. Kyle answers and there's a couple there with a spaniel that we've never seen before (we'd never seen the couple or the spaniel, just to clarify). And when ensued was a conversation a bit like this:

Couple: Hello, we're from Number 15. Are you missing a snake?

Us: YES! YES WE ARE! WE ARE MISSING A SNAKE! DO YOU HAVE OUR SNAKE? YOU HAVE OUR SNAKE!!!

And then the spaniel started barking and there was a conversation about anime, but the upshot was... These people had Ket. They had our snake. OMG. What are the chances? It's been six months since he escaped, yet a group of kids found him today on our front lawn. They called an adult who took Ket in, put him in a nice tank, and started asking around. What are the odds of any of that happening? I can only think that Ket's been in the house somewhere all winter, and the recent warmer weather got him moving. I am so unbelievably grateful that those kids did the sensible, kind thing instead of ignoring or tormenting Ket, as they could easily have done.

So he's home! My Number One Snake is home. He's bigger. He seems quite sluggish, but I guess he's had a busy day. We've bathed him, we're going to feed him tomorrow, and get him to the vet on Friday. And on Saturday we are damn well buying some snake locks for his tank.

It's so weird... I dreamed on Sunday night that we found him. And I was thinking today that all these nice, small things keep happening to me at the moment. Nothing life-changing, but just little things that make me pause and feel thankful. And this, this is incredible. Of all the things I excepted when we got that knock at the door, Ket coming home was the last of them.