Earlier this summer dear friends of ours invited us to enjoy time at their mountain home not too far from where we live. It was tricky navigating our two young girls through a house full of things that weren’t theirs until we discovered the snake. The seventy inch, fluffy plush, neon tie dye snake. For our eldest daughter it was love at first sight.
Following severe thunderstorms that night we were packing up the car before lunchtime and explaining that the snake was, in fact, not joining us for berry picking and the drive home.
If you’ve ever seen footage from the 60’s of girls descending into hysteria over the Beatles then you would have a good image in your mind of what our older daughter, who’s just shy of 4 mind you, was like when we broke the news about leaving her reptilian buddy.
I rarely get things for the girls out of guilt if ever, and since we have a toy-in-toy-out to Goodwill rule in our house the girls don’t hound us for new things. However. The degree of sincere heartbreak we were witnessing compelled me to look for some solution.
It turned out this wee beastie was created and sold several years ago by Ikea – the Djungelorm – and was no longer for sale (of course it wouldn’t be). It came in two ‘colors’ – solid green and insane, the latter of which was particularly rare (of course it would be). So off to eBay I trotted.
It was a veritable online marketplace miracle that I found not one, but TWO crazy snakes for sale. In England!!! Several emails later and an extended time through the US customs processing department, these two indescribably silly creatures arrived to our door.
I paid three times the price of the snakes themselves to ship them to the US – though all told it was under thirty bucks. The girls were elated and gladly parted with two of their old toys to donate. Thank you, thank you eBay you glorious magic maker!
What are some of the oddest things you’ve found on eBay? Let’s start a list!! Ooh, maybe we’ll start a new board on Pintrest.
P.S. In hunting for images for this post, I came across a YouTube video where a Djungelorm is teaching beginners Italian. It. Is. Priceless. #mustsee
Niche Envy 
Oooooh nooooo! I was just packing up 2 snakes to send to the girls. Seriously. Bless their hearts. They have such wonderful parents. 🙂 Do you want 4 snakes?
ha ha! I adore you … we’d gladly take two more snakes. THANK YOU!!!
I’ve been hunting for just 1 of these snakes for like a year now. And all of them are either far too sketchy or I can’t get in touch with anyone. I used to have one when I was younger and I was really rough with it. My mom got tired of fixing it and eventually threw it out. I’ve missed it ever since. ;-;
Oh no!! They are indeed very cute stuffies. Hoping you might find one on eBay! Fingers crossed and thanks for reading and sharing your story!