Marin Humane was getting ready to close for the day when the staff members saw someone leave a bucket by the front door of the lobby and walk away without a word. Assuming it was a food donation, employees Kylie Bradley and Michelle Teruel went over to sort
through it. Bradley reached her hand inside — and immediately yanked it out again.
"At first we just saw a jumble of leaves, sticks and camo fabric,” Teruel told The Dodo. “It wasn’t until I saw something flicker that I realized that there was something else in there.”
The bucket wasn’t holding a donation after all — it was holding a rattlesnake.
The employees were absolutely flabbergasted that someone would leave a dangerous animal in the lobby without so much as a word. If they hadn’t spotted the snake in time, both themselves and the snake could have wound up injured.
The snake was understandably scared and trying to hide, so it took a few minutes to confirm he was in fact a rattlesnake. The bucket had been left in the middle of a California heat wave, and there’s no telling how long the poor snake had been sealed up inside.
“I did a visual exam and was glad to see that the snake looked to be healthy,” Teruel said. “During my exam the snake finally started rattling its tail and I realized that while not a baby, it was young enough that its rattle did not make any noise. So had I not spotted the snake buried in the bucket, it would have been very easy for someone to have gotten bitten without ever realizing that there was a snake in the bucket.”
Once the employees confirmed the snake was OK, they passed him onto one of their animal control officers, who found a safe place to release him.
“Working in customer service, you never know what's going to come through the door,” Bradley told The Dodo. “We have to be prepared for any situation or animal that comes in.”
Marin Humane wants to remind everyone that they’re happy to help in any way possible, but ask that people please not leave animals unattended. Especially rattlesnakes.
