My pet snake has returned after vanishing two years ago – I couldn’t believe where we found him
A SNAKE who gave his owners the slip has returned — after living in their walls for two years.
Sidney the corn snake was the size of a boot lace when he vanished via a crack in his glass-fronted coop in 2021.
Kiley Mitchell, 50, had accepted he was “gone forever” — but was speechless when the now 4ft Sidney slithered out of a sofa at his three-bed cottage last week.
Shocked engineer Kiley told The Sun: “I was on holiday in Morocco, having dinner.
“My parents were house-sitting and sent me a blurry picture of him — saying ‘Look who has turned up’.
“I was dumbstruck. We sit on that sofa. It’s like the plotline from a horror movie.
“Sidney had wrapped himself around the mechanism inside the sofa, had clearly not eaten for a while and was really angry.
“We called in a snake handler who managed to grab him by the head — but he spent a good 30 minutes wrestling like Steve Irwin to get him free.”
Kiley, from Churchover, Warks, bought harmless Sidney from Pets at Home for £30 for his kids Ruben, 18, and Louis, 22, in 2017.
He kept the snake in a glass vivarium, feeding and cleaning him out once a week — and knew it was not unusual for Sidney to hide in his bedding.
But in March 2021, Kiley noticed crafty Sidney had disappeared entirely, after not eating his food.
Kiley said: “We looked everywhere but corn snakes can get through some really very small gaps and it’s an old house.
“We thought he’d perish after a couple of months and made peace with the fact we weren’t going to see him again.
“We had no idea he was still alive — but we think he’s been living in the cavity walls for two years, drinking our cat Jade’s water and feeding on any mice and spiders.”
Kiley has since handed over responsibility of Sidney to his eldest son, who works as a warehouse operator in Derby.
Single Louis said: “We’ve now got sliding glass doors on his enclosure which are locked from the outside.
“I check them every night — at least three times — before I go to bed.
“We’re just really happy to have him back.”