Edenderry's St Patrick doesn't banish his snake but loses him instead

It's well known that St Patrick banished snakes from Ireland, but the tale of Edenderry's own St Patrick losing his snake is quite a different story. Just one week after leading Edenderry's first-ever St Patrick's Day parade, Pets Paradise owner and Operation Transformation leader Adrian Brereton lost his pet snake Boris. Fortunately the unseasonal sun this week lured Boris out of his hiding place and he's now safely back in captivity. The orange corn snake appeared as special guest at a confirmation party near Rathangan on Saturday last, and Adrian opted to leave him in his van while he watched his young son play in an under 16 GAA match. When he returned to his pet shop to put Boris to bed however Boris was nowhere to be seen. "The box must have fallen over coming across the bog road," Adrian surmised. Having not seen the snake trying out his GAA skills, Adrian reckoned Boris had retreated into the side panels of his van. On Tuesday morning last Boris eventually came out of his hiding place, lured by some mice Adrian had left out for him that had warmed in the morning sun. "He took the mice and went back to the cave that was part of his box," Adrian explained, adding that the high temperatures also meant his snake didn't freeze during his adventure. With Boris safely encased, Adrian went on to experience one more incident - cutting his eye on Wednesday. The cut isn't serious but is sore he said, but should be healed in time for Sunday when he's due to run the last 10km of Niall Murphy's 100km Autism run in Rhode. All the misfortunes of the last week will be left behind however if Adrian manages to break through to the 14 stone bracket by the end of the week. "I'm only half a pound away," he reported on Thursday.