An Australian woman got a nasty surprise when she took a look at her Christmas tree Dec. 18.
Cheryl from Melbourne discovered a three-foot-long tiger snake among the Christmas decorations, the Huffington Post reported.
She managed to take a photo of it before calling in a professional.
“She didn’t panic,” Barry Goldsmith wrote on Facebook, according to the Post. “She just took a photo and sent it to the snake catcher, me, and 20 minutes later I had the little bugger in a bag. Ho Ho Ho.”
Goldsmith pointed out that not everyone responds to the presence of a reptile in their home so casually.
“Usually I get people screaming and hysterical and shaking and having seizures just at the thought of having a snake in the house. But she was pretty cool,” he said, according to ABC Online.
Tiger snakes are venomous, but Goldsmith downplayed the danger involved in catching one. He described his intervention as “just another day in the office for me.”
He noted that the snake was not going to harm anyone.
“The only time the snake becomes a dangerous animal is when somebody tries to hurt it,” he added.
“If you try to attack a snake or kill a snake then the chances of getting bitten increase hugely,” said Goldsmith.
While he has never seen one in a Christmas tree before, Goldsmith is no stranger to finding snakes everywhere.
“Snakes show up in many strange places, like bird cages, bookcases, in boots and in toilets,” he added, the Post reported.
Cheryl’s discovery also prompted responses on social media. “Looks so cute,” wrote one user, while another commented with more concern, “Time to get a new house,” according to the Age.
There was even one user prepared to question the whole affair, writing, “This is so fake.”
Goldsmith removed the snake from the house and relocated it to the bush.
Sources: Huffington Post, the Age, ABC Online/ photo credit: Barry Goldsmith/Huffington Post
