I haven't heard the story, but I only study the venomous reptiles, so I probably missed the story. But, I must say those parents should be put in jail, as there is no such thing as a "caring" reptile; it is ludicrous to even suggest that and the parents are big dummies. That animal should have had no way to get into the childs bed, and I am very surprised he hadn't already eaten that child.

I kept a few non-venomous constrictors in the mid 90's, and one of them I had was a Burmese python. She was about 8ft. long and very "friendly", and I would let her sleep in the bed on occasion, not at night when I was sleeping, but just during the day when I was up and about. One day I went to a friends house and before I had left, I had filled the tub with water, but had left the window cracked and it was cold. She liked to sit in the tub and then would come out and do whatever. I got home late and when I went to see where she was at, she was still in the tub and it was VERY cold. I could tell something was very wrong with her, as she was very cooled down and sluggish. She started to come out of the tub and when I reached to get her, that was it, she tagged me and got almost my whole hand in her mouth and tried to coil on me. They have alot of backward curving teeth and it took a few minutes to remove her from my hand, and she left about 10 teeth imbedded in me. I had to get a tetanus shot and my hand was black and blue for a few days. I usually greeted her by letting her come up and "kiss" my face; glad I didn't that day. I would have looked like this

Boas and Burmese pythons are known to be gentle, but that doesn't mean they won't attack. That snake that crawled in with the child would have eaten that kid and they got lucky. Snakes can settle in with a person, and become more calm and situated with their surroundings, but that doesn't mean they end up "loving" their owners Snakes have 3 instincts: hide, hunt, and reproduce; and everything is instinctual. Some of my cobras were devils when I got them, but have settled in nicely and don't spook and hood as much, but that doesn't mean they like me and can sleep with me; it just means they aren't as scared of me as I have shown to be no threat. But as soon as they know that I plan on handling them, they see me as fair game and try to end my life. A very intense hobby to put it mildly.

If you want to see a calm, "nice" snake, go to youtube and put in "King Size Surprise". It's 10 minutes long, but get to the 8 minute mark and watch from there. He isn't so "caring" at the end. It's worth watching as it is funny listening to Al scream at the end.