hiss puppy

 There is a running joke in which animals are referred to as ‘puppies’, the kind of puppy being designated by something you associate with the animal. It is jokingly affectionate.  So a flying fox is a sky puppy.  A cow is a grass puppy. But to call a snake a hiss puppy seems quite a stretch in terms of affectionate humour.  It is perhaps the unusual and domesticated context in which hiss puppies have been found that gives rise to it.  One hiss puppy was in a bag of lettuce in a supermarket.  Another was slithering around the spice rack in Woollies.  It seems that people who collect snakes use hiss puppy as a term of endearment. It makes you wonder how many other puppies there are.