The young woman kept a huge python at home. One day, her pet began acting strangely: it stopped eating and started wrapping itself around her waist more and more often — until, at last, she discovered something terrifying about her beloved companion.

The python’s name was Saffron — for the golden spots on its smooth scales. The girl had taken it in three years earlier, and soon the snake became almost a member of the family. Her relatives shook their heads disapprovingly: “It’s a predator, be careful.” But the girl laughed: “Don’t worry, she’s tame and gentle. Saffron adores me — she’d never hurt me.”

Over time, however, the python’s behavior began to cause concern.

At first, the changes seemed minor. Saffron stopped eating. At night, she would crawl out of her terrarium and stretch out alongside her owner — head near her shoulder, tail near her feet. Sometimes she softly wrapped around the woman’s waist and froze, as if measuring something.

During the day, the snake would choose a cool spot by the bed, right where the girl walked barefoot. She would lie there for hours, her tail barely moving, as if watching her owner’s chest rise and fall with each breath.

Sometimes Saffron would slither up toward her neck, linger under her collarbone, and touch her skin with her forked tongue. The girl would joke that it was a “kiss.” But soon she began waking up at night more and more often — feeling a heavy weight pressing down on her chest.

Then one night, she awoke to a loud hiss — and realized it was time to take her pet to the vet. Only there did she learn the terrible truth about her snake.

The doctor carefully examined the python, weighed it, and listened to the woman’s account of its strange “embraces” and refusal to eat.

“You see,” he said calmly, “this isn’t affection at all. When large pythons stop eating and stretch out alongside a human, they’re actually measuring their prey — checking if the size is right. And those ‘hugs’ are practice sessions for constriction. Yours is a mature female, very strong. She’s fully capable of cutting off your breathing. Attacks are rare, but possible. In essence, your Saffron was preparing to eat you. My advice: isolate her immediately, review her feeding routine, and — ideally — hand her over to professionals.”

Those words sent a chill through the girl. That evening, she sat on her bed for a long time, watching as Saffron glided smoothly across the sheets. At one point, the snake coiled around her legs — just like in those photos of pythons wrapped around sleeping people. Only this time, the girl wasn’t asleep.

Gently, she lifted Saffron, placed her in the terrarium, locked the latch, and sat down on the floor beside it.

In the morning, she called the city’s reptile care center. By afternoon, specialists arrived and took the python away — placing her in a spacious container, where she would be cared for and, at last, everyone would be safe.