"Oh, for Pete's sake!  I already had rattlesnakes and water moccasins in my collection.  A poisonous snake is not dangerous, not any more than a loaded gun is dangerous - in each case, if you handle it properly.  The thing that made that coral snake dangerous was that I hadn't known what it was, what it could do.  If, in my ignorance, I had handled it carelessly, it would have killed me as casually and as innocently as a kitten scratches.  And that's what I'm trying to tell you about Mike.  He seems as gentle as a lamb - and I'm convinced that he really is gentle and unreservedly friendly with anyone he trusts.  But if he doesn't trust you - well, he's not what he seems to be.  He seems like an ordinary young male human, rather underdeveloped, decidedly clumsy, and abysmally ignorant ... but bright and very docile and eager to learn.  All of which is true and not surprising, in view of his ancestry and his strange background.  But, like my pet snake, Mike is more than he appears to be.  If Mike does not trust you, blindly and all out, he can be instantly aggressive and much more deadly than that coral snake.  Especially if he thinks you are harming one of his water brothers, such as Jill - or me."