A petrified Quambatook resident retreated to the local watering hole after she discovered a brown snake coiled beneath her dining table during a recent storm.
“We had no power so I went to the pub,” Laura O’Dwyer said.
“I just went home to grab my wireless speakers about 8pm and saw it under the table, I couldn’t find my favourite cat but found him hiding under my bed.”
Ms O’Dwyer isn’t sure how the slithery friend made its way into the house, nor how long before the cats, Merlin and Morgan, found the three-foot snake.
“I froze and looked closer for a bit to see if it was alive,” she said.
“It didn’t move and was coiled in like a spiral.
“I went to find my cats while ringing my truck driver husband and freaking out at home for not being home.”
After finding the cats hiding, Ms O’Dwyer locked them in the bedroom while she returned to check the snake.
“It was still in the same position…I bravely grabbed my fire poker and jabbed it, it didn’t move so I used the coal shovel, only screaming once as he slid off the shovel and took it outside to the bin,” she said.
“I have a new extension and new plumbing, every hole is blocked that I know of.”
The only place Ms O’Dwyer thought the snake could have accessed was under the door or the screen door.
“Freaking me out, I’ll be putting a draught blocker on the front door,” she said.
“I truly didn’t want to be at home in the dark in a place that has snakes inside. What if there were more.
“I’m doing a spring clean today and moving and vacuuming under everything.”
Ms O’Dwyer believes the cats were behind the killing.
“It had bite marks right behind the head and one about half way down,” she said.
“Ironic thing is I lock the cats inside the minute I hear of the first snake sightings as I lost a cat to a snake when we first moved up here 11 years ago and it was awful. Also, I didn’t want them bringing snakes in.
“The joys of living in the country, although it does make me wonder why I bother locking cats in for eight months of the year when snakes come in anyway.”
Despite Ms O’Dwyer’s close encounter, Swan Hill snake catcher Michael O’Brien said he hadn’t had as many reports of snakes this year.
“I’m not sure why there aren’t as many reports, but I thought there would be considering we had the mouse plague earlier in the year so they might have come out then,” he said.
Mr O’Brien urged property owners to keep the yard clear, check timber stacks and mow regularly to reduce the risk of snakes being present.
“If they can get their heads through a small gap, they can get their whole body through,” he said.
“It’s illegal to kill snakes. Most people are bitten because they try to catch them or kill them.”
