An animal-loving Chatsworth family was reunited Wednesday with Big Mama, their roughly 15-foot pet python who’d been missing for about a week, after a next door neighbor spotted the adolescent snake in his backyard.
The family had been searching for the 13-year-old reticulated python after she went missing from her outdoor cage in the family’s backyard on July 4. She was found around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday just as the pet’s owner, Alex Villalta, was doing a phone interview about the missing pet with a news reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News.
Before joining the Villalta’s pet family, Big Mama spent several years as a show snake with a family member who worked as a reptile handler and was used to educate people, including small children, about reptiles. Native to Indonesia and weighing approximately 55 pounds, the light-colored yellow and black python was often presented as the ‘grand finale’ during her time as a show snake, Villalta said.
A professor of Industrial Technology at Pierce College, Villalta said he has owned reptiles throughout his life and remembers having his first pet frog when he was 8. Growing up as an introvert, the now 45-year-old felt his love for reptiles helped reduce his social anxiety and fostered relationships with his peers.
“Animals have always been my second go-to or my hobby. We own two French bulldogs, two little Frenchies, and another old English bulldog. We’re a vegetarian family and big animal lovers,” said Villalta.
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