Rescue Tales: Boa in an Engine
By Cindy Steinle · September 7, 2026 11:23 am
Cindy holds the boa after getting it out of the engine in the background before sending it on it's way to animal control.
My rescue is not a normal one. I don't just take animals and then adopt them out to new homes. I also provide other services for shelters and this is where life gets fun. So I pulled into my overnight client's driveway, pulled the wireless charger off my phone and noticed I have a few messages. I slapped my case on and opened my messages just as my two dogs bounded in, causing chaos, only to see a message from Karen, the director of our largest animal control facility, sent at 4 pm on a Sunday of a holiday weekend. Yeah, I called her. Karen only uses the actual phone in emergencies; otherwise, she uses Facebook, and she only contacts me for emergencies. Otherwise it is Pete. Because, you know, it's a holiday weekend and we work with animals and never take days off.
The text was simple.
Are you free. Boa in Car
No, not only in the car, but in the engine of the car. Man this is some Flordia stuff. I get the address, having already told my clients I was minutes away, I send them a screen shot of what was going on and say I will be back to the house soonish. I sent Dan the screenshot and said I'd let him know when I knew what was going on because well, he was in band practice. But I fully planned on coming out bloody and if I was really hurt, he was going to have to patch me up before I went to work.
Soooo I turned right back around and drove 18 miles (instead of 14 to home, I was that close to home) to meet up with the ACO on the road at a house.
And at this house was a junker car with the hood popped. The guy popped the hood you see to start ripping apart the engine to scrap it for junk and make some money off it. But coiled atop that nice warm hidey hole in the dark was a snake. The guy was positive it was a boa constrictor. He called the DNR and they just wanted him to watch it. So instead he called animal control. While they were taking the report and getting an officer free in the field, they were also calling in their special volunteer "officer". Who rolled up in her Taco Tuesday hoodie. Prepared to bleed because well, a boa in the hot sun on a car engine that doesn't want to come out is not going to be a fun thing. Sandy was there and a new guy I kept calling Young boy... (People don't understand wrestling terms in the real world and I need to remember that.) By now I have seen a photo of said snake, I know it is indeed a boa and a sizable one at that. I have also had Sandy confirm she has seen it and it is a boa.
So the guy who owns the car tells us he can rip anything off it as I am looking at the alternator, Sandy says she sees the head on the other side of the engine. She shines her light and says she sees it. They are trying to reach it with tongs when I ask if I can grab it with my hand. Remember, I was prepared to bleed going in. Sandy says yes. Soooo I looked and realized there was no way I could reach in without climbing my big booty up onto the engine of the car. Ladies and gentlemen I am 51 years old with bad knees, overweight and I have severe neuropathy in my arms and feet. Lets not even discuss the fact that I do not have a right bicep attached and my right shoulder is mostly fixed as best as can be. And we ain't even getting into the head and neck injuries. But ya know I still think I am invincible and YOLO YO! or something like that.
This is where I tell you that YES there is video. No I do not have it but I did tell them the name of my rescue for them to tag it in if they post it on social media so hopefully I can share it. Because I climbed up on the hood of that car, reached down into the abyss of the engine, grabbing around until I felt snake. I realized it was mid body. Now I knew if I irritated it one direction I could make it move. You know how it works: if you want to make a giant get into a bag on its own, you tickle its hiney, so to speak. So I started tickling the hell out of it, the head poked out from underneath once, Sandy saw it, and they grabbed the bag and got ready. I told them what I was doing and when the head came out the second time they grabbed it, I kept tickling until the body hit the ground.
We were out of there in 10 minutes. Pulled the snake out of the bag to snag a quick pic for myself and this story. ZERO blood.
This is all part of what I do for shelters when they call. I just do most of it for MADACC because it is the shelter I live closest to and can respond fastest for.
Now as for the next question "Why it was there." Escaped pet. Likely forced its way out of a poorly locked cage. There is a good reason I turn down those glass "reptile" cages with screen tops. Those are fish tanks with screen tops. Reptile cages have locking doors. Very different. People put large snakes like this in those aquariums with screen tops and weights. That doesn't work. The car was perfect with the insulation. Our nights are now dropping into the 60's off and on. The dome was a nice heat deck. The location was near construction so an increase of rat activity kept it nice and fat. It would have not survived winter had it not been discovered.
The snake is now at MADACC under stray hold and if it is not reclaimed will come to small scale.
Now I am going to go have lunch and dinner since I missed lunch chasing a snake in a car engine.
At least life is interesting. Bruises but no blood
