An Australian woman woke up in the middle of the night thinking her dog was sleeping on her, only to discover something quite unexpected resting on her chest.
Still half-asleep, Rachel Bloor instinctively reached out for her dog, but found herself stroking something unusually smooth instead. Her husband, sensing the strange moment, switched on the bedside lamp.
“Oh, baby. Please don’t move,” he said. “It’s like you have an 8-foot python inside you.”
This large snake is believed to have entered their second-floor bedroom in Brisbane, Queensland, likely through an open window, which is about 900 miles north of Sydney.
The 8-foot python, typically found along Australia’s beaches, is non-venomous but constricts its prey, as reported by the BBC. The incident received coverage due to its unusual nature.
Bloor mentioned that her first thought was to get their dog out of the room, perhaps a bit callously.
“I figured if my Dalmatian caught wind of the snake, it would be chaos,” she shared.
Once she confirmed the dogs were out, Bloor cautiously wriggled out from under her covers.
“I sort of side-shuffled my way out,” she noted.
Interestingly, Bloor didn’t reach out to a snake catcher; instead, she managed to remove the large reptile herself through the window. Remarkably calm, she exclaimed that “toads actually scare me more” than snakes.
Bloor suspects the python slithered in through the plantation shutters next to her bed, curling up on top of her body, even though part of its tail was visibly hanging out.
“It was so long that even curled up, some of it was still poking out from the shutter,” she explained.
A local snake catcher from Ipswich, Queensland, pointed out that increased reptile activity has been observed as breeding season wraps up and young snakes start hatching.
“With the current warm weather, we’re seeing a lot more animals coming out to catch some sun,” said Kurt White.
White also mentioned that while snake populations aren’t necessarily rising, sightings are more common due to expanding housing developments encroaching on natural habitats.
“They need a place to live, and our backyards often fit the bill,” he remarked.
