An 80-year-old woman has been called a “deadset legend” after rescuing her puppy from the coils of a carpet python.
Both animals were relatively uninjured by their encounter, but the elderly snake wrangler received three bites for her efforts.
The sounds of her dog “screaming” on Tuesday evening prompted the Lennox Head resident to explore what was going on in her property. She discovered the python “coiled completely around her pup” with several snake bite wounds on its chin.
‘Amazing’ woman saves puppy and tracks down snake.
The mother acted quickly to free her pet, but was “bitten three times” by the python while separating them.
After the snake slithered away, seeking sanctuary in her next-door neighbor’s yard, the persistent woman followed it down and relocated it to a neighboring shrub, hoping it would not bother her dogs again.
“My mum is bloody amazing,” her daughter wrote online, showing a photo of her standing in her driveway, holding the snake by its tail and looking into a bite on her arm.
“Mum got bitten three times getting the snake off her pup” .
Australians came together online to praise the brave woman’s actions. “They don’t make them like that anymore; such a sturdy old bird with a beautiful heart.
“I hope her puppy isn’t too traumatized,” one woman said, while others called her “gutsy” and a “trooper.” Others advised her to go to the hospital to ensure the bites did not become infected after her daughter confirmed that they had visited the vet to check on her dog’s health.
The modest woman denied an interview, and her daughter just told Yahoo News that her mother “did what she had to do”.
Carpet pythons’ bites are ‘nasty’. People must have a license to handle wild snakes, and a snake catcher told Yahoo News that “technically she’d be in breach” of these wildlife protection rules.
He did, however, applaud her courage and agree that her “love of her pet is always going to take over”.
“I don’t recommend anyone interfering with a snake in this situation, but I understand the urgency of the moment you make that decision,” Mathew Hampton, a snake expert, said.
“It’s one of those blurry lines where I can totally understand why someone would freak out and try to unwrap the dog… she’s done a great job, she’s pretty tough.”
