As a bored-to-death child in Eagle Point, Laura Wells used to slither through irrigation ditches searching for snakes and frogs.

"I’ve never been normal," says this Gold Hill woman, who used to sleep with one of her pet snakes.

In recent years, her hobby has transformed her ramshackle house — a shack attached to a small mobile home — into an orphanage for abused serpents.

The living room is filled with eight reptiles, including a reticulated python, which can grow to 25 feet in length.

"We’ve made it our cause to watch out for them," she said.

Wells caresses her red-tailed boa constrictor, which came to her after its nose had been intentionally burned by a heat lamp.

Adding insult to injury, a rat that was supposed to be the snake’s supper ended up nibbling at the wound

"She’s been through a lot, that little snake," said Wells, holding the healed, six-foot-plus serpent that coils its muscular body around her arms, and occasionally, around her neck.

Wells, and her roommate, Bill Smith, have given the reptiles — including a baby alligator — a home, but are now worried they could be the ones who become homeless.

"We rescued all these guys, now we need to be rescued," said Wells. "We’re getting evicted."

Wells and Smith were told they would have to leave their home of three years by Dec. 18.

But they took the owners to court in a complicated legal dispute, giving them a reprieve.

In the meantime, they have been searching for a new place that would be reptile-friendly.

"We’ve been looking for quite a while — the problem is funds," said Wells.

They need a home for, among other things, a tangerine milk snake, a ghost milk snake, an indigo snake, an alligator, two chameleons, the python and the boa.

"They are known for killing people," noted Smith, as he handled the apparently docile boa that appeared more interested in getting back into its cage than gracing the neck of its owner.

Most of their dangerous reputation comes from accounts of wild boas, said Smith,

In addition to the reptilian menagerie — none are poisonous — Wells and Smith have two Rottweilers that came from abused homes, as well as an aquarium full of fish.

Wells said they hope to take their reptiles on the road, offering to educate the public about serpents.

They have brought them to a Girl Scout camp, where both adults and children tentatively approached the creatures that slither and squeeze and dart their tongues out.

"A lot of adults are deathly afraid of them, but after a show they want to come up and hold them," said Wells. "A lot of people’s fear is their lack of knowledge."

Over the years, Wells and Smith have learned a lot about the care and feeding of snakes.

Once they offered the boa a live mouse for dinner.

When they came back a few minutes later, the snake was eating its meal backward.

"We were told that a snake could strangle if they ate it backwards," said Wells. "We later learned they can get them down either direction."

Still they frantically tried to save the snake from what they thought was going to choke it.

"He (Smith) was trying to pull the mouse out of its mouth," remembers Wells.

Smith, who tried his best to wrest the mouse from the snake, said, "He just wouldn’t let go of it."

Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail dmann@mailtribune.com