A few years ago, humane snake wrangler Bruce Ireland got a call about a gopher snake stuck in a manhole cover. When Ireland arrived at the scene in San Diego, California, he saw a long, scaly tail sticking out from a small hole in the plate.
At first, the snake wasn’t moving at all, so Ireland began to fear the worst. He didn’t know how long the animal had been there or how much stress he’d been put through.
But after a few seconds, the snake’s tail moved. Ireland breathed a sigh of relief — there was a chance he could save him.
Even though the manhole cover was incredibly heavy, Ireland managed to lift it up. He started trying to gently guide the snake out of the hole, but he was struggling. It was difficult to hold the cover up with one hand while helping the reptile with the other.
At that very moment, a curious woman walked by. Even though the woman was terrified of snakes, Ireland asked if she’d be willing to set aside her fear to help him. To Ireland’s surprise, she said yes.
“[S]he got up the courage, and I was able to start trying to see if this snake was going to budge at all,” Ireland said in a video for The Dodo.
The woman had some Vaseline in her bag, so Ireland tried applying it to the snake’s body in an attempt to slide him out. But still, the snake didn’t budge.
“[E]ven while we were working on him, he was amazingly calm,” Ireland said. “Never panicked.”
After working to free the snake for almost an hour, Ireland started to worry he wasn’t going to succeed. But then, another woman walked by who happened to have baby oil on her. Ireland and the woman used the baby oil to gently push the snake through the opening.
“I just helped her,” Ireland said. “Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, and all of a sudden … the snake came out.”