I was wrong, Celia, North Carolina does have cobras

As we drove into your beautiful state for a two-week vacation, my ever-cautious 9-year-old daughter asked, apropos of nothing, “Does North Carolina have cobras?”

Oh, how we laughed! No, no, no, Celia, don’t be silly! North Carolina doesn’t have cobras! They live in Africa and Asia, not the mid-Atlantic region of the United States!

So imagine our surprise at discovering that North Carolina did in fact have a cobra problem.

The escaped zebra cobra that made national news busted out just a few miles from where we are staying in northwest Raleigh.

Logically, we knew the cobra was unlikely to travel that distance. As accustomed as he – she? – was to close-quarters captivity, the wide-open world would be intimidating. It was more likely to hunker down close to home rather than, say, Uber to our neighborhood.

But a primal fear of snakes, coupled with the especially deadly details of this particular venom-spewing nightmare-come-to-life, inspired caution. So, too, the knowledge that our hosts have dispatched a couple of copperheads in their yard in recent years.

On our first night in Raleigh, with the free-range cobra still on the lam, Celia asked me to retrieve her bedtime companions Chrissy, Slo-Mo and Popcorn – respectively a stuffed dog, sloth and purple unicorn – from the family minivan.

I peered out across the darkened front yard, eyes darting around for signs of slithering, then bravely ventured forth. As I leaned into the minivan, I wondered if the cobra was coiled underneath.

Is this how it ends? I thought. Spit to death on a daring mission to rescue a purple unicorn from the snake-infested streets of northwest Raleigh?

Despite living in Louisiana, a state with no shortage of quirks and questionable policies, I was still struck that North Carolinians can keep deadly critters as pets.

“Freedom, y’all” – I get that.

But trusting citizens to not screw up when the margin for error is so low – and the potential for danger and disruption to their neighbors is so high – is asking a lot.

The young owner of the now-famous zebra cobra had converted his parents’ basement into a veritable Noah’s ark of venomous snakes. Unfortunately, his cobra containment system was apparently “escape-proof” in the same way the Titanic was “unsinkable.”

Another member of his menagerie, a green mamba, bit him in March, requiring a trip to the hospital for antivenom. He’s thus once-bitten, but apparently not yet twice shy.

We were relieved when the fugitive cobra was finally corralled near where he escaped. The cobra was obviously not as enthusiastic about exploring Raleigh as we are.

The day after the capture, we visited the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. A third-floor exhibit displays several of the 37 snake species native to the state.

As I suspected, the zebra cobra isn’t one of them.

This story was originally published July 3, 2021 at 1:00 AM.