Python "girl": member of rural family for 9 years
By Guan Xiaomeng (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-01-15 09:35

The family gave several live chickens to A Cai as a reward after she caught the thief and neighbors gathered to watch the python swallow the chickens. However, to everyone's surprise, the mild python "girl" played with the chickens for more than 1 hour without eating them. "Maybe she is shy before so many people," Huang laughed.

Okay, if she doesn't eat chickens, so what about children? Does she hurt them? Well, consider such instances: Huang's 6-year-old son loves to ride or lie on his python sister's cold skin very much and he sometimes pulls her tail backwards when she tries to creep forwards.

Huang's son pulls the python's tail backwards as she tries to creep forwards.

Still can't believe it? Then listen to this: What the neighboring children love to do most after school is to run to Huang's house to play with their python gal. They carry her to the near river, where they swim together. Parents watch their children with a python in the water with their mouths wide open while the children just enjoy it.

"I am overjoyed to see A Cai can get on very well with children," Huang said. Naughty A Cai sometimes creeps onto the bed when Huang and his two children are resting. But the father and children love to rest their heads or bodies on A Cai's cold skin. "A Cai is a natural cold pillow," Huang joked.

Huang and his two sons rest in bed with the python as their "pillow".

Does A Cai really involve herself into human beings' life? The answer seems to be "yes." Huang once carried A Cai out to the forest to let her back into the wild. "But I found her lying in the house 48 days later. She crept back by herself," Huang said.

Once claimed as a permanent member of the family, A Cai, who doesn't hurt people, became a local celebrity among neighboring people. People come to visit A Cai and play with her. The friendly python coils round visitors' necks and kisses their chins with her long tongue, with people screaming but from joy.