COBRAS Slithers Into Baby’s Crib, Mom Finds Out Too Late
It was very late in the evening when the event transpired. They had tucked their daughter into bed at nine and ate their dinner afterward. They made sure that the pet cobras are set and comfortable for the evening before going to bed. But a bang jolted her out of her slumber a few hours later. As another impact echoed through the floor, she woke her husband and looked at him with startled eyes. Sarika Patel was adamant that her old life would not spill over into her new life when she settled down and started a family.
Sarika Patel Michelson was a loving wife and mother of a sixteen-month-old girl named Sanvi and a loving husband named Eric. Unfortunately, something terrible happened one night that threatened all she cared for. Ever since she was a young girl, she was drawn by the illusion of magic. She was well known as a talented painter and novelist in Estes Park, Colorado, but she had first gained notoriety in New York as one of the city’s top illusionists. She had given up a lot of her former life as a single, childless lady in order to explore new opportunities. However, there were some things that not even she could abandon. Her three pet cobras—Amaterasu, Odin, and Osiris—were among the things Sarika carried over from her magician days. These snakes weren’t little scrawny creatures either. Since she was eighteen, Sarika had trained these massive, terrifyingly venomous serpents. Her three cobras were just as much her children as little Sanvi. Sarika thought of them as her daughter’s big brothers. But something happened that would change everything.
Eric and Sarika settled down in a quaint neighborhood in Estes Park. Eric never truly accepted her choice of pets, however. Once their daughter was born, things really spun out of control. When speaking to the local media, Sarika said the first thing he wanted to know was whether I had removed the snake’s venom glands. He was worried that Sanvi would be hurt if we weren’t looking. Sarika made sure to take her pets to the vet months before she met Eric. However, she enjoyed teasing him and never truly answered his questions. She would merely reassure him that Sanvi would never be harmed by them. Nevertheless, what they found that night was enough to send them to the hospital and call the police.
It is important to realize that venomous snakes can regenerate their venom glands with time, even after they have had their venom glands removed. Rarely, harmless snakes envenomate their human hosts, resulting in paralysis and sometimes fatalities. With Sarika and Eric, it would be more likely that all three of the cobra’s venom glands would regenerate rather than just one. Her snakes were harmless, and Sarika always joked that was indeed the case. However, they never hurt anyone, even though they were extremely protective of each other and Eric. The king cobras are the world’s most deadly snakes, so her unawareness that every cobra had developed new venom glands was very dangerous.
A dark night was the backdrop to everything that took place. Sanvi was put to bed by Sarika and Eric around 9:00 PM. Their pet cobras were also put to sleep after dinner. But her sleep was interrupted by a loud bang a few hours later. Eric was woken up by another crash reverberating through the floor, and they both were startled. Sarika overheard Sanvi’s laughter as it was transmitted over the baby monitor at such a late hour. She couldn’t explain how her daughter could be giggling so loudly. As she laughed, sobbing soon followed. Sarika jumped out of bed after another thud, running to Sanvi’s room as Eric looked for his baseball bat. It was pitch black, and neither of them bothered to hit the lights until they got inside Sanvi’s room.
There is no doubt what they found made them shudder. Sarika and Eric pushed their daughter’s door open and rushed in, but jumped back as soon as they turned on the lights. Sarika held a hand over her face, her eyes wide as she glared at what they found. Their daughter was quiet and unharmed, her eyes glossy, but what was happening around her was enough to inspire fear, dread, and awe in equal measure. Before the couple was a masked man writhing on the floor. In his hands was a massive bag of stolen items from all over the house. But this wasn’t the fascinating thing in the room. Around little Sanvi were Amaterasu, Odin, and Osiris, their necks flattened into hoods as they protected their little sister and hissed at the man. It was then that Sarika realized what was happening.
“Get the first aid kit!” she screamed as she rushed down to the burglar.
She’d heard stories of snakes regenerating venom glands before, but never thought it would happen to her boys. Eric brought the first aid kit, which had snake anti-venom. They administered it to the man before calling the police and the emergency room. As the police arrived, Sarika knew what she needed to do. Sarika and Eric took the cobras to the vet as soon as possible. The vet confirmed that all three snakes had completely regenerated their glands for over three years. He revealed that if they wanted to harm anyone in the house, that person wouldn’t survive thirty minutes after envenomation. Would they be open to having the boy’s venom glands removed again?
