Google is reputed to be a great place to work; as an animal lover, I’m especially interested in the company’s lenient pet policy. That policy only applies to dogs, however, so there was a bit of an uproar when a small python got loose on Sunday. The snake, named Kaiser, has now been found.
Kaiser had been smuggled in by his owner, according to ABC’s David Schoetz, and his escape put certain sections of Google’s New York offices on high alert. There was even “a search by Google security that included posted photos and a description of the brown and gray reptile.”
Of course, given the date on which the escape occurred, some people – including your humble author – required extra convincing that it had taken place. “The company, known for internal April Fool’s Day pranks, was forced to confirm the missing reptile after some employees shrugged off the search as a seasonal joke,” reported Schoetz.
At the same time, Google tried to downplay the incident; Kaiser’s “exact location . . . was not disclosed,” according to a Valleywag article, because “Google didn’t want to alarm the office’s residents, who had probably been sitting with the python all day.”
Said python, by the way, was non-venomous, just three feet long, and, as described by Valleywag, “a danger to mice but not to humans, unless they’re very delicate.”
Just the same, I can only imagine how much happier those New York Googlers must be to know that their workplace is now snake-free. Complimentary meals are nice, but loose reptiles have to take away from the company’s appeal.
