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Our five year old girls don’t take any shit are cool under pressure, too

· Aus/NZ affairs
python.jpg

(The Times, March 28, 2003)

February 12th, 2004 |

16 comments to Our five year old girls don’t take any shit are cool under pressure, too

  • Eamon Brennan
    February 12, 2004 at 2:59 pm

    If that story had surfaced here the Python’s owner would be suing her for the consequent emotional trauma.

    Eamon

  • digamma
    February 12, 2004 at 3:02 pm

    A snake tried to eat a cat, so a human killed the snake. The only way this can be defined as “prevention of cruelty to animals” is if we define “animals” as “cute furry animals”.

  • Ryan
    February 12, 2004 at 3:25 pm

    Whatever, that is one bada** 5 year old

  • Frank McGahon
    February 12, 2004 at 4:51 pm

    This is why my kids won’t be allowed have pets to get too attached to [or be introduced to pythons if I can help it]. However nice kitty is, you can always get another one. It takes a bit longer to replace your 5 year old daughter should she lose a fight with a massive python.

  • HitNRun
    February 12, 2004 at 5:05 pm

    “This is why my kids won’t be allowed have pets to get too attached to.”

    It’s not so bad if you don’t live near pythons.

    That is one amazingly brave little girl though. Pity the award is a bit hypocritical.

  • Perry de Havilland
    February 12, 2004 at 5:14 pm

    Say it ain’t so, Frank! I always thought Ireland had no snakes at all after St. Patrick got through with them… and now I discover you have to worry about pythons! Huh, another cherished belief bits the dust

  • Frank McGahon
    February 12, 2004 at 6:08 pm

    That reminds me of the awful joke:

    Q: What did St. Patrick say as he was driving the snakes out of Ireland?

    A: “Are yis alright in the back there, lads?”

  • Rick
    February 12, 2004 at 6:23 pm

    The article does not say anyone killed the python. Certainly Marlie did not, so even in London she might be viewed as “all right”.

    By the way, what do pythons in Australia have to do with snakes in Ireland?

  • lindenen
    February 12, 2004 at 7:51 pm

    A better question is: there are Pythons in Australia?!? Christ!

  • Michael Jennings
    February 12, 2004 at 8:25 pm

    Yep, there are lots of pythons in Australia (many with cute yellow diamond shaped markings), plus lots and lots of snakes of other kinds. This little girl was actually lucky that she chose to take on a python, which is not venomous, rather than one of the many types of Australian snake which are.

  • limberwulf
    February 12, 2004 at 10:02 pm

    Hats off to a brave young girl acting with the strength of love rather than the paralysis of fear. And hats off to her parents who did not teach her to be afraid. They say you are only born with the fear of falling and loud noises, everything else is learned.

    The world needs less fear, more thinking and acting.

  • Alan K. Henderson
    February 13, 2004 at 5:58 am

    I recall another kid-vs.-critter story involving Natalie Lileks:

    The only flies in the ointment were the wasps. It’s yellowjacket season; they hover around the meat like paparazzi. We’ve all perfected the wasp-wave; you flick your hand with a disinterested languor – just think Oscar Wilde dismissing a jejune insult – and the wind distracts the wasp for a second or two. Or, you take Gnat’s approach, and stab one with a fork.

    I blinked, stared: whoa. This is Matrix-level skill on display. There is a fork, Neo, and she just impaled a wasp with it.

    “Shoo fly don’t bother me,” she sang. And then she went back to her Froot by the Foot.

  • mike
    February 13, 2004 at 6:12 pm

    Well Eamonn, if that’d happened here in Holland, the little girl would have been arrested, let alone sued! What for? They’d think of something, possibly or possibly not to do with animal cruelty. And the Dutch would just say “Nothing you can do about it, it just happens like that here. The police are a bit like that”

    /rather sour on the cloggies at the moment

  • Perry de Havilland
    February 13, 2004 at 7:36 pm

    Rick: Frank, who writes from Ireland, remarked about not wanting his daughter to get too attached to any pets lest it cause her to take unwise risks should said pet encounter a python… hence my jest.

  • Jennie
    March 31, 2005 at 1:39 pm

    What does having your child get attached to an animal have anything to do with wrestling a python? I believe it (a pet) teaches the child responsibility and respect for all life. Denying a child of this couldn’t only provoke animal cruelty.

  • secret
    July 16, 2005 at 2:28 am

    I didn’t see anyone posit the obvious: What intelligent parent would keep a large python in a home alongside 1) a small kitten 2) a child !

    What if he’d grabbed the child when Mum wasn’t there?
    I deplore the notion that a kitten can simply be replaced. Living mammals are not expendable at our whim. Also, it’s obvious that this child really loved this kitten to have done what she did. One day she may have to fend off a mugger- I feel sorry for the mugger! For the one who said, “This is why my kids won’t be allowed have pets to get too attached to”. You’re depriving your children of something wonderful. How can being attached to a loving pet be wrong? Loving a pet can teach children many good things, such as patience, responsibility and unconditional love.

    Ditch the snake, lady. Keep the kitten.

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