On 4 May 2006 04:51:44 -0700, wrote:

Hello;

To make a long story short...my 11 year old son thought it would be a
good idea to to put a gardener snake inside the main water supply pipe
in my house to play a prank...yah real f***in funny...now the snake is
caught up somewhere inside one of the 1/2" copper pipes because I am
not getting any water pressure. Further more, no one in my house in
there right mind would want to use the shower, let alone use the water
knowing that snake is probably dead and rotting inside a pipe
somewhere.

BTW, how he did it...He turned the main water valve off and removed a
3/4" bleed plug (?) and put the snake through the pipe. He thought the

Good for him. Smart kid. This reminds me of the time my father told
me the combination to his office safe. I was 6, maybe 7. Everytime I
went to his office, i would open the safe and look inside (thought I
didn't remove anything.) My mother says he didn't think I would
remember it.

It is in fact cruel, but I wouldn't worry about your kid. I'd worry
more about myself, who once tormented a spider, then grasshoppers, and
finally ants (Ages 8, 12, and 16) Either right away or not too long
after the last one, I regretted it and about the same time, I
regretted the other two as well, if I hadn't earlier. I've never done
anything anywhere like that since, and I've never hit anyone except I
slapped an obnxious friend once (consciously opening my hand to be
sure it was only a slap; and I swatted at an obnoxious ex-girlfriend
who was tormenting me**, with a newspaper once. I dont' know if I hit
her, but certainly not much. I don't even yell at people or ever
threaten anyone, or anything. I don't even feel like doing so.

I didn't really DO anything to the grasshoppers except mow the lawn
where they all hung out. The problem was that I sort of hated them,
and enjoyed mowing right over them. (It was only one summer and maybe
1 to 3 times. The following summer there were few if any there.) If
it had occurred to me to go first and scare them away, that wouldn't
have worked because they would nave jumped into me maybe, and I hated
them.

Anyhow, you can see that I still remember all this and regret it.
And I'm sure by the time your kid is in his 20's or earlier he will
regret killing the snake. Actually I was ashamed at the time, and
never told anyone any of this, until now or maybe one person earlier.
So there was no one to criticize me. I guess you could, maybe should
point it out to him that he ended up killing the snake for no good
reason, but I think it is any child's mistake, and I might tell him
that and I wouldn't be hard on him at all. If you don't mistreat
animals, he'll regret it all by himself. If he doesn't already.


**She got her ex-husband so mad when they were married, he kept
knocking holes in walls with doorknobs and even without. He was so
angry he kicked a bag of cement and broke his foot. And her first
ex-husband said the greatest day of his life was the day he divorced
her. How did she get people so angry? By not caring a bit when they
got somewhat angry. Twice divorced before she was 30, and crapped on
her girlfriend at work too.


More importantly, I don't think at the time your kid saw it as even
tormenting the snake, just as funny. He thought it would come out the
faucet and would be fine. And I think they only warn about kids who
make repeated attacks on animals.

snake would come out a faucet when someone was using the water in the
morning. The next morning he told me what he did because he got nervous
when I said I was going to call the plumber to see what was wrong.

Any ideas what I can do? I do not want to call a plumber because this
is embarrassing and I have no money to burn. Thanks for your time;

Wait until it rots, and no more comes out of the faucet? That would
still leave the snake skin, and the bones, wouldn't it.

Do you know what pipe it is in? You must have some idea, because you
know if you are missing both hot and cold water, for example.

I would use the shower, but I'd let the water run a while first, as if
it had lead in it. But I don't expect your family to be like me.

Even I wouldn't drink the water, though.

Phillip