DUBLIN, Ireland Legend has it that St. Patrick scared the snakes out of Ireland. Maybe, but these days theyre catching on as pets and turning up in unexpected places. Were finding them in attics, in peoples cupboards, under the sink in the bathroom, said Gillian Bird, education officer of the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. One family was watching TV when a snake crawled out from underneath. TVs are such warm places. Increasingly, Birds office is being contacted about snake sightings. One lady was spotted last week dropping her out-of-favor serpent from a car parked outside Dublin Zoo. But sometimes peoples imaginations are getting the better of them. When we go out on a call were wondering, Is this going to be a garden hose again? Bird said. The half-dozen reptiles in her centers 2-year-old snake house are real enough: corn snakes, bull snakes and a red-tailed boa, none native to this damp and cool land, all abandoned or on the run from their owners. Bird admits theyre no experts in caring for them but theyve had to learn, because snakes are becoming popular pets. We tell people a snakes for life, not just for Paddys Day, but not everybody listens, she said. The Irish snake trade has its own murky history. Monica Roden, whose Dublin Pet Stores is the oldest such shop in Ireland, doesnt sell anything slithery these days. But her father did back in the 1930s.We had grass snakes here, shipped over from England. I was just a wee girl but I remember my father going down to the docks to collect the wriggly boxes, said Roden, 69, whose family business dates from 1845.There were no rules in my fathers time and pet shops sold everything from geese to monkeys. Today, the best place to go for a good snake in Dublin is Thomas McElherons shop on Wellington Quay, where St. Patricks celebrations were starting Friday night with floating bonfires on the River Liffey. McElheron each year breeds a few hundred snakes corn snakes from the Carolinas in the United States, dwarf pythons from Africa and Australia, milk snakes and rosy boas from South America and Mexico but he wont sell one to just anybody. This is a 15-year commitment. I vet everyone who says they want a snake, to see if theyre on an ego trip or have really researched it, said McElheron, who turned to reptiles as a boy when the family dog made his allergic brother wheezy. He thinks the growing popularity of snakes has to do with the Irelands booming economy, which has transformed Dublin from a go-slow backwater to a busy metropolis. Todays people dont have the time to keep dogs. Handling a snake is low maintenance, he said. A young snake, he said, might eat a thawed, dead mouse every two to four days, and should be picked up and cuddled every day or so to keep the snake mellow. Reptile experts doubt that any snakes were native on the island back in the fifth century when Patrick was spreading Christianity and, supposedly, scaring off any serpents that got in his way. Most abandoned snakes turn up dead, unable to keep their cold blood going through the night. Birds veterinarians respond to every snake sighting but on Thursday they were too late. An old lady called saying there was a snake sitting in her garden. Shed seen it there basking in the sun on Wednesday, but she was scared to death of it and wouldnt go out. She called us when it was still sitting there the next day, Bird said. It died of the cold; a fine corn snake it was.