This story is not for the faint-hearted, so if you’re afraid of snakes, beware. But also know that this story comes with a happy ending despite involving an 11-foot coastal carpet python and a tiny victim.
Ferrari Pomeranian was enjoying a walk with his mother and two canine siblings at Noosa Woods dog beach in Queensland, Australia when the python grabbed its tiny head. The snake quickly wrapped around Ferrari and began to suffocate him. But Amanda Taylor’s mother heard Ferrari’s screams and immediately took action.
The brazen snake attack
Amanda and Ferrari, along with Taylor’s other Pomeranian and their Bull Arab Mastiff, were on the beach and were about to enter the river when the snake attacked. About the canine ambush, Amanda tells ABC Sunshine Coast“I looked down and I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
Describing the moment the python ambushed Ferrari, Amanda said: ‘This snake went among the big dog, the python. [other] the little dog and me and just grabbed my little dog by the head…and then swaddled it really fast.”
“I quietly reached down and grabbed this snake by the tail and started shaking it,” explains Amanda. “My head shakes got bigger and bigger… then suddenly it started popping and the poor dog flew up into the air and ran down to the beach.”
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As for the python, Amanda grabbed it and threw it into the water. The other seafarers didn’t know what was going on at first, many of them thinking, “it’s like a big stick.” But as soon as Amanda asked for help, the response was immediate.
“I said ‘You can try and grab him [Ferarri] because he was attacked by a snake?’ and then suddenly people started moving.”
Kristy Williamson witnessed the incident and grabbed a stick to help, but she says Amanda looks like a “real snake wrestler” at work.
Kristy said: “I hate to think what could have happened if it had only lasted a few more seconds… it felt like she really took the situation and saved her dog – she was like Steve Irwin,” Kristy said.
And after Amanda wrapped the bleeding Ferrari in a towel, Kristy said the snake retreated “right under this tree…and it’s over.”
“It was unbelievable how quickly it happened… it was like an alien movie,” said Amanda.
Ferrari was bitten in the ear and under the eye and is taking antibiotics as a precaution. But little Ferrari isn’t the only favorite furry dog to have been entangled in one of these carpet pythons in recent days.
Kittens are also attacked
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 (nearly 10 feet) carpet python in an area off the beach for the dog is not far. And hearing Boots’ screams of fear, his mother, Nadia Hackling, ran over to find him wrapped in a python, “just a minute away from death and screaming”.
“The kitten was lying on its back — its whole body covered,” says Nadia.
Hearing the uproar, neighbor Mike Beuerman came to his aid and entered a moment of “horror”. Together, Nadia and Mike save Boots and remove the python. However, in a chilling coincidence, Mike found another python in the same spot near his house the next day. But perhaps seeing two snakes in the same place is not uncommon in the Noosa area.
He said: “I had red-bellied black and brown snakes in my front yard and I just caught a 6-inch cobra while I was mowing the lawn. “I saw a lot of snakes there [at Boreen Point] than anywhere else in the world.”
And that statement alone means Queensland pawnbrokers should probably keep an eye out for snakes whenever they’re out with their furry ones.
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Featured pictures: ABC Sunshine Coast & The Brisbane Snake Catcher
