This tale is not one for the squeamish, so if you fear snakes, beware. But also know this story comes with a happy ending despite involving an eleven-foot coastal carpet python and a tiny victim.
Ferrari the Pomeranian was enjoying a walk with his mom and two dog siblings at the Noosa Woods dog beach in Queensland, Australia when the python snapped its jaws shut on his little head. The snake quickly wound around Ferrari’s body and began to suffocate him. But mom Amanda Taylor heard Ferrari scream and jumped into action.
Brazen Snake Attack
Amanda and Ferrari, accompanied by the Taylor’s other Pomeranian and their Bull Arab Mastiff cross, were on the shoreline and about to enter the river when the snake struck. Of the fanged ambush, Amanda told ABC Sunshine Coast, “I looked down and I just couldn’t believe my eyes.”
Describing the moment the python ambushed Ferrari, Amanda said, “This snake had gone between the big dog, the [other] little dog and myself and just grabbed my little dog on the head … and then just wrapped around him really quickly.”
“I reached down quietly to grab this snake by the tail and just started shaking it and shaking,” Amanda explained. “My shakes were getting bigger and bigger … then all of a sudden it started unravelling and the poor dog went flying up in the air and running off down the beach.”
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As for the python, Amanda made short work of it, hurling it into the water. Other beachgoers had no idea what was happening at first, many of them thinking, “it was like a big stick.” But as soon as Amanda asked for help, the reaction was immediate.
“I said ‘Can you try and grab him [Ferarri] as he’s just been attacked by a snake?’ and then all of a sudden everybody started moving.”
Kristy Williamson witnessed the incident and grabbed a stick to lend aid, but she said Amanda looked like a “real snake wrestler” at work.
“I would hate to think what might have happened had it been just like a few seconds longer … it just felt like she really nailed that situation and saved her dog — she was like Steve Irwin,” Kristy said.
And after Amanda had wrapped the bleeding Ferrari in a towel, Kristy said the snake retreated “straight under the roots of this tree … and it was all over.”
“It was just unbelievable how fast it happened … it was like an alien movie,” said Amanda.
Ferrari suffered bites to the ear and below his eye and is taking antibiotics as a precaution. But little Ferrari isn’t the only beloved furry one who’s tangled with one of these carpet pythons in recent days.
Kitten Attacked Too
Less than a week before Ferrari was attacked by a carpet python, nine-week-old kitten Boots found himself in the clutches of a three-meter (almost 10 feet) carpet python in an area not so far off from the dog beach. And hearing Boots’ terrified cries, his mom Nadia Hackling came running to find him wrapped up in a python, “a minute away from death, and screaming.”
“The kitten was on its back — it’s whole body wrapped up,” Nadia said.
Hearing the commotion, neighbor Mike Beuerman came to help and walked into a “terrifying” moment. Together, Nadia and Mike saved Boots and relocated the python. In a chilling coincidence, though, Mike found another python hanging out in the same spot near his house the very next day. But maybe seeing two snakes in the same place isn’t so odd in the Noosa area.
“I’ve had red-bellied blacks and brown snakes in my front yard and I just had a six-inch baby tiger snake when I was mowing the lawn,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot more snakes there [at Boreen Point] than I have anywhere else in the world.”
And that statement alone means Queensland pawrents should probably keep their eyes peeled for snakes anytime they head out with their furry ones.
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Feature Image: ABC Sunshine Coast & Snake Catcher Brisbane
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