Answering the door while handling a snake

[IHaveADogToo]

A few days ago I was handling my ball python Charles (he's still a hatchling) and my doorbell rang. Putting Charles back into his enclosure and dealing with the clips and the stuff I set on top of the enclosure to weigh the lid down would have taken several minutes. He was wrapped around my hand and my dog was going nuts so I just said "screw it" and answered the door with Charles wrapped around my hand. It was one of my neighbors. Anyway, I held Charles off to the side so she couldn't see him, and I talked to my neighbor through the screen door for several minutes, and she looked confused the whole time. So I told her why I was staying inside and hiding my hand, and she took about 15 steps backwards. My dog was still going nuts, so I told her, "I'm going to come outside now". Next thing I know I'm outside alone, with my snake. Neighbor nowhere to be found. I opened my door and she vanished.

Charles gave me this confused look. My dog stopped barking though.

What are y'all's experiences with answering the door with a snake?

[EL Ziggy]

I've never answered the door with a critter in hand but when I lived in an apartment I used to love the looks on the maintenance men's faces when they came into my place. How can you be scared of a harmless animal in a cage?

[kudzu]

Haven't done that, but have had to move my snake from the room on two occasions so delivery & repairman would calm down. Felt particularly bad for one of the guys. His coworker really found humor, in a good natured way, in the fact that the small human female had to move her small snake for the benefit of the large, brawny, human male. Made a point of telling him I'm not scared of snakes but terrified of spiders. (Withheld the fact that I'm also scared of butterflies.)

[IHaveADogToo]

It's just odd for me, because I sympathize. Up until recently, I was the guy who wouldn't even enter your house if you have a pet snake. I was just as terrified as those maintenance men and repair men. I went from from having a life-long taught phobia of snakes to buying a fancy snake to play with in the matter of like a month. So seeing that fear in another person as someone who has recently overcome that fear myself was fascinating.

[Herpin' Man]

I don't answer the door, snake or no snake. People eventually just give up and go away.

[Andy_G]

My neighbours don't know (or at least haven't been told) that I have snakes. I wouldn't answer the door holding them either. I've had people come in to do work on the house (furnace and whatnot) and they're pretty indifferent to the snakes. The less personal attention for me, the better. Some people are uncharacteristically crazy when it comes to snakes, and I don't want to deal with any potential headaches if someone unexpectedly reacts negatively, especially next door neighbours.