MY 4 YEARS RELATIONSHIP WITH LUKE AND WHY I HAD TO LET IT GO

It was very late one night that my friends brought Luke and introduced him to me. They just got back from Lukut, near Port Dickson where they met him and decided he would be most suitable for me and hence decided to introduce him to me. And they were correct! The minute I laid eyes on him and later to hold him, he got me captivated. His smooth skin and bright eyes were all too attractive to resist. So it was destined that later he came and stayed with me.

He was very much a part of my daily life and was a pleasure to have around. I still remember the many nights I spent cuddling him (and be cuddled!) while watching TV in the evenings.

Other times he got to go around with my friends and me when we went on our weekend jungle trekking trips or when we had to give talks on reptiles to some school groups.

This sweet twosome relationship went on for a while until I became ‘serious’ with my husband-to-be. From then, I must admit I did neglect Luke a bit but he wasn’t complaining. My husband was equally acceptable of Luke as he has also known Luke before we got together and Luke became part of the family. However, when I later got pregnant, my mother-in-law put her foot down and insisted that Luke had to go (she has never been fond of him anyway), saying that he was not suitable to be around babies.

So it was with a heavy heart that my husband and I decided that we had to let Luke go to keep the peace. It was late one evening that the two of us, together with a friend from overseas, took Luke to a place where we know he would be familiar with and be independent. We decided we will let Luke go in Upper Pangsun, near Ulu Langat. As if to impress on the significance of the moment, the sky opened up when we set off on foot to our destination and we were drenched to the skin! When we reached Upper Pangsun and let Luke out of the bag, he was very cautious and darting his tongue around, testing the environment. After a while, he seemed quite happy with what he sensed and was soon happily slithering away without a backward glance!

By now, you may have guessed that I’m talking about my pet python, Luke, whom my friends found in an oil palm estate in Lukut (from where I coined his name). From under a feet long when I first got him, he grew up to close to 7 feet by the time I let him go. His primitive instincts had grown more acute as he grew bigger and much stronger. He was sometimes temperamental and not allowed to be around small kids unsupervised, which was the main reason why we had to let him go.

We let Luke go, knowing he will be happy to be back in the wild again and we were grateful to Luke as through him, and with him around, we were able to educate many school children through our talks and presentations that snakes are actually very intelligent and attractive creatures. Unless provoked, they are pretty harmless and they deserve their place in the ecology system as much as any other animals and should not be killed on sight!

P.S. To me, Luke is always a ‘he’ instead of ’it’.  :-)



Pic left: Cuddling up!
Pic top right: Luke sensing around
Pic bottom right: Saying bye-bye to Luke