Emotional support python found after car crash on I-94

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A Canton woman thought she lost her emotional support animal for good after getting into a car accident on I-94.

The python, named Pina, disappeared after the crash. But the workers who towed her car were determined to find the missing python.

She knows I'm her mom or at least I like to think she knows I'm her mom," said Jessica Welch, who owns Pina. "I cuddle with her sometimes."

Most people get anxiety around snakes. Welch says it actually helps her.

"The weight of it sort of reminded me of almost like a hug or weighted blanket and that's where her being my emotional support animal comes in because I struggle with anxiety," she said.

With Pina riding shotgun, Jessica was coming home from college last week in horrible snowy conditions, on I-94 near Chelsea. That was when a multi-car crash led to her smashing into a truck.

"I looked back in my car, saw her tank was just like shattered, obviously she wasn't in it," she said.

Frantic, she looked, first responders looked, and no python. At the other end of this story, there was another college student who was home on holiday break working at her family's tow company. Not a snake gal, but still with a big heart, Carli Kearns made a mission to find the reptile, asking her dad for permission to pull the wrecked SUV into the heated garage, to find Pina and she did.

"I picked up the spare tire thing and that's when that's when I saw its scales under the sear and took off running to find Will."

Will Shaw was then at the rescue. He had to wiggle the wreckage, cut wires, and wrangle the snake. The duo turned into reptile paramedics when they saw the snake was not moving. They tried the heater but still nothing. 

They told Jessica the next day she was gone. Jessica came to pick her up, fully ready for cremation.

"I started poking around in like inside her mouth to see if that would get a reaction out of her and that's when she drew her head back a little bit," Welch said.

She's a tough girl, and she was rushed to the vet where they gave her a little snake IV, and snake antibiotics. 

She is now recovering at home.