Count “finding a lost pet snake” among the benefits of composting.
The BBC reports that a man’s pet milk snake was discovered in a nearby compost heap after going missing over a year earlier.
Snake parent says Mark Gordon-Hill says he recognized his lost reptile after seeing a photo of it posted to a local Facebook group.
“There was this little inkling in my head,” Gordon-Hill says. “I was like – that’s exactly the same snake that went missing a year ago, and then when I got there, I was like, yeah, that’s my snake!”
“The markings, a deforming on the tail, which I knew was my snake straight away,” he adds.
Emma Dormer, whose husband found the snake while gardening, is also happy to see it reunited with Gordon-Hill, albeit for different reasons.
“I was terrified,” Dormer says of the snake encounter. “Hopefully [it will be] the last we will see of that!”