I hate snakes

This story doesn't help it. I remember being in the first grade and my school bus driver telling me about a snake coming up her toilet. Ever since then - I shit you not (pun intended) - I must look in the toilet before I sit my cute little butt on it to potty. I swear to God. In the middle of the night when I get up to go, I turn on the light and have a look-see before I sit atop the throne.

I heard this story on the radio this morning and it only reinforces that OCD-type habit of mine.

Officer Saves Couple From Slithery Surprise
Susan Schrock Fort Worth Star Telegram via Associated Press
DALWORTHINGTON GARDENS -- Gene and Mary Alice Coats' toilet troubles called for more than a plumber.
Gene Coats was watching Wheel of Fortune in his living room last week when he heard strange noises coming from the toilet in the front bathroom.
As soon as he got to the bathroom door, he came face to face with a 6-foot intruder. Coats ran out the door yelling to his wife, who scrambled to safety and dialed the Dalworthington Gardens police.
When volunteer officer Craig Driskell arrived at the California Lane home, Gene Coats was armed with a hoe, and his wife was standing on the kitchen counter.
The intruder, a black water snake, was coiled up next to the toilet.
Driskell -- a Fort Worth lawyer turned snake charmer -- knocked the scaly trespasser into the bathtub with the hoe, grabbed it behind the head and stuffed it into a pillowcase.
"He was fearless," Mary Alice Coats said. "He just went right in there and got it in his bare hands."
Driskell, who said the snake probably snuck into the windowless bathroom through the toilet, released the reptile into the lake behind the city's Public Safety Department.
"I'm glad I got the call because any of the other officers would have shot it," Driskell said jokingly. "I didn't want to put bullet holes in their tub."
Mary Alice Coats, who refused to come down from the counter until the snake was outside, said she still hasn't gotten over the commode commotion.
"Right now, we've got bricks on top of the commode," she said. "It was traumatic. I'm still not comfortable going in there."