Okay, I have a funny story that is not yet resolved. We have a 24'x24' portable building on our place that has been converted to a cabin with full kitchen, laundry, and bathroom. I lived in that while my house was being built. Last week, my wife opened the front door and smelled something. She went inside to discover the smell was coming from the bathroom. When she looked down at the commode, there was the partial remains of a mouse floating there. She flushed down the mouse (the source of the smell) and suddenly below the inside lip around the toilet bowl a snakes tail dropped down about 4". My wife is not about to grab onto any snake's tail, so she tried flushing several times. Nothing but the tail ever dropped down, so she cleaned the toilet with a brush and then came to main house and told me about it.
I went into the cabin and could not repeat her findings. After about three flushes, suddenly the tank flapper seal did not seat and water kept running. I carefully lifted the lid and there was my visitor hanging about 6" of the tank valve, a small rat snake. Without thinking about turning off the water, I reached down to get the little rat snake and it suddenly darted back down the flush drain and disappeared while the flapper valve closed and the tank started filling. So, I realize that the snake is trapped in the water jacket portion of the bottom of the commode. I figured if I can flush that toilet enough, maybe the snake will end up getting into the drain and go all the way to the septic tank. I flushed and refilled the toilet about 5 times and could no longer see any evidence of the snake. I came back to the main house and told my wife that I thought I had got it flushed down the drain, but I wouldn't sit on that toilet if I were her. She said not to worry.
So this weekend, she went down to the cabin to check. Sure enough, when she went to flush, there was the tail hanging down again. She came and told me that not only was the snake not dead, it was very much there and alive. I immediately went in to check and could see nothing. I bent a hangar so I could probe all up under the commode seat lip were water drains around the bowl. The bent hangar worked great, but I couldn't feel anything by the hard porcelin of the lip. So, I decided to make things easier on the snake. I turned off the water to the commode and then opened the flush flapper and propped it open. The tank lid is off, the flapper is open, and there is no water to deal with. I just hope that rat snake crawls out of there and leaves the cabin by the same path it came in. I'll check back later today to see if it's still around. In the meantime, I'll probably never get my wife to use that facility again.:laughing:
