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© Wikimedia Commons. A Boa constrictor
Two months after she moved a second hand couch into her bedroom, a Grand Rapids woman discovered a boa constrictor was living under the cushions.

Holly Wright says she doesn't know where the snake came from; she found the couch on the curb outside a house in Heritage Hill.

Wright, along with her boyfriend, videotaped the discovery. "It's been living in the couch for like two months in my bedroom and I had no idea and it looks pretty big."

Wright says the couch was along the curb with a free sign in front of it. She didn't think twice about bringing it home. "We smelled it and everything-- it looked OK. We peeled off the cushions, cleaned it up, never saw anything," said Wright.


Over the weekend, that changed when the snake emerged from inside the couch. "It was very lethargic," says Wright. "It didn't really react or hiss, but when we poked it with a coat hanger it coiled up a little bit, so at that point we flipped the couch over."

She says they tore the side of the couch and removed the snake and put it into a box for safe keeping. "It was quite cold in the room, there was no food for the snake and I think it came out of the couch because it was dying," explained Wright.

Wright said they intended to take the snake to an animal expert to nurse it back to health, but unfortunately it died before she could. "Funny, my room almost feels a little empty now. It's been really sad actually to realize all this time I was in proximity to that animal (that) was probably suffering."