Tim Dowling: how do we put Mr Rogers the snake out of his misery?

'You've got to cut his head off,' my wife says. I look at my hands for a long time. We've had Mr Rogers for eight years. For several days I manage to shirk my obligation to do something about our terminally ill snake, Mr Rogers. I've let it be known that it's a bad week for me, that I am much too busy to kill any pets. Mr Rogers will just have to wait until I can find a hole in my schedule for his murder. To be honest, I was sort of hoping that Mr Rogers would just die in the meantime. The tum...