Jasmine is 8 years old. To everyone’s surprise, something crazy is going on with her. She can’t sleep at night without her snake being with her. Her parents don’t understand it at all. Anyway, when they take Jasmine to the doctor, he’s in shock after he examines her. But why is the doctor in such shock? Is it because of Jasmine? Is it because of the snake? Does Jasmine have a problem?
When Jasmine was due to be born, her parents, Oliver and Amanda, were hesitant about whether they should keep their unusual pet around. Was it irresponsible to let a giant python near a baby? They spent a long time discussing this with each other. Oliver had raised the snake literally from when it was just an egg. He had picked it up on his trip to Brazil and never expected that it could hatch when he was only home for a couple of days.
The egg started to crack, and a baby python was born. Oliver had considered donating it to a zoo, but the idea of raising a snake by himself intrigued him. This is something you don’t just experience again, so Oliver decided to keep the snake. Interestingly enough, the python was the reason Oliver had met his wife, Amanda. He asked for advice on online message boards.
Amanda was somebody who got in contact with him quickly when she learned about his situation. Of course, Oliver had no idea how to raise a snake. From that first date, sparks started to fly. She had a passion for reptilians for a while, and when she found out that Oliver lived fairly close to her, she wanted nothing more than to see his snake. All this happened within weeks of their first meeting, but now the snake was not the only thing they would need to take care of. Something had come along.
The pair moved in together quickly, and from that moment on, they raised the snake together. There was only one problem they were facing. For this, they had to find a solution. They were very hesitant about the giant snake that was living in the house. The couple was extremely excited about having a child together, and so were their family and friends. Even though they loved the snake and fully trusted the creature, it was still a wild animal and could be unpredictable. Oliver and Amanda thought long and hard about their decision and the risk, but eventually decided to trust their snake and their ability to keep the baby safe. They assumed this would work out just fine. Their snake had never harmed anyone before. Why would he hurt their baby?
Though when their little girl turned 4 years old, Oliver found it about time that she got a better understanding of who she was sharing the house with and tried to get Jasmine and the snake familiar together. He tried to get them together as safely as possible, first letting Jasmine observe the snake from a distance and also getting the snake familiar with her scent. He was afraid that Jasmine might be afraid of the snake, and that getting over that could be a lot of work. But actually, the opposite happened. Jasmine was fascinated by the pet snake.
She absolutely loved seeing the animal. She kept looking at it, getting all happy. From that first day that Jasmine and the snake were able to touch each other, the pair became inseparable. Jasmine wanted to be with the snake at all times, and it was seemingly also the other way around. Oliver and Amanda enjoyed seeing it. If the snake did not see Jasmine for an extended period of time, it would get noticeably restless, and this could get to a point where not even Oliver could calm the animal down. Only Jasmine’s presence seemed to do the trick. Oliver thought it was very remarkable. By now, it had gotten to a point where Jasmine could not sleep without the snake. This inseparability seemed only to get stronger as years passed.
They trusted the snake with all their hearts, but an accident was a lot more likely at night. What if the snake contracted in his sleep and crushed poor Jasmine? Jasmine’s parents saw sleeping next to the snake as a huge risk for her and explained that they felt it was dangerous. Oliver and Amanda couldn’t understand why Jasmine refused to give up the snake just for the night. When they finally got a straight answer from Jasmine, they couldn’t believe her response.
Jasmine told them that it wasn’t like she enjoyed sleeping next to the snake or that she particularly enjoyed it. Many nights she didn’t even want to close her eyes because she understood the risks. But there was simply no way she could fall asleep without the snake at her side. Amanda and Oliver were totally confused by Jasmine’s explanation, yet they had to admit that Jasmine seemed very open to hearing them out and coming up with another idea.
They decided to test Jasmine’s claims. They set up an experiment to keep the snake away from Jasmine for just a couple of nights. During the nights they were separated, the snake couldn’t sleep either. It was clearly upset and crawled around restlessly the entire night. Jasmine didn’t fare any better. She couldn’t sleep for all three nights that they were apart. And there was one thing about the entire situation that was truly unbelievable. No matter how exhausted Jasmine was from staying up so late, she couldn’t fall asleep. In fact, she started sleeping during the day when she could have the snake around her.
Amanda and Oliver had no idea how to react when they saw that Jasmine was just sleeping during the day instead. They couldn’t figure out who else to talk to except for their family doctor. Amanda called the office and explained what was going on. The story was so absurd that the doctor didn’t believe her at first. It took some convincing to get him to understand and finally give his medical opinion about what to do next. In the end, the doctor believed Amanda simply because she was so desperate for help.
She even had pictures of the snake and Jasmine on her phone, which she showed the doctor. The doctor was so baffled and confused that there was only thing he felt he could do to help the family. The doctor decided to reschedule some of his appointments so that he could observe Jasmine and Amanda together. That would help him understand what was going on with their behavior.
But before he went to their house, he decided to make one more call that Amanda and Oliver clearly hadn’t anticipated. The doctor had been so upset by the picture of Jasmine with the snake that he called Child Protective Services to report the incident to the authorities. He wanted someone to verify that the girl wasn’t being put in harm’s way at home. If there were dangerous animals around, the doctor had asked her to bring Jasmine to the office immediately. Soon, Amanda would have an answer, or so she hoped.
Amanda quickly got Jasmine ready to return to see the doctor. They didn’t even have to wait in the office when they arrived. The staff just waved them into the exam room to see the doctor. The doctor joined in to run a few tests and see what he could find about her trouble sleeping, but there wasn’t anything obviously wrong. A few minutes later, the doctor concluded that there was nothing medically wrong with the girl.
She was just accustomed to sleeping next to another living creature, which happened to be a snake. That meant that she was exposed to the snake’s habits. It all had to do with the snake’s heartbeat. The snake’s heartbeat was providing a steady rhythm to soothe her and help Jasmine fall asleep. He’d heard of a similar case that involved things like tick clocks or other similar noises. He’d never encountered anything with a snake, but the solution was still the same. The doctor had a cure.
Amanda and Oliver followed the doctor’s suggestion and bought a noise machine that beeped along with a rhythm. They set it to mimic the snake’s heartbeat while Jasmine was sleeping. It helped her get comfortable enough to overcome her insomnia and finally sleep without the snake around. But how did the snake react? The snake eventually got used to sleeping on its own without Jasmine nearby to cuddle around.
After a short period to get used to it, the snake seemed to be behaving normally again. Everything was back in balance, and Amanda and Oliver no longer had to worry about bedtime with Jasmine.
