COURIER MAIL (Brisbane, Australia) 08 October 13 Brisbane cat escapes with his life after playing with eastern brown snakes (Jasmin Lill)
A Brisbane cat might want to get a new hobby after he was caught playing with eastern brown snakes twice in two weeks.
During the first encounter, Roberto had been playing with one of his owner's shoes near the door of their Riverhills home in Brisbane's south-west.
"Normally that means he's got a skink or a grasshopper, so I went over to rescue it and flicked the shoe over and this big snake came out," owner James Wall said.
The snake crawled into some grass clippings and Mr Wall Googled the reptile to find out what it was.
"Turns out it was an eastern brown and when I found out a bit more about it, it scared the crap out of me," he said.
Two weeks later, Mr Wall's partner called him to say there was a snake in the house.
"It was tangled up in the mat and it was another one of the exact same kind. I tried to get a basket over it but it was rearing up, doing its thing. Then it crawled into a cupboard," he said.
The couple then called a snake catcher who removed one of the second most toxic land snakes in the world from their linen.
"They're pretty much the only snakes I've ever encountered in my life, then they're all at once and they're ultra dangerous," Mr Wall said.
"Things come in threes so I don't know if I'm going to wake up with one draped around my neck."
Mr Wall said Roberto is closely supervised, but that the couple would scrutinise him even more after the latest incidents.
"If your cat is habitually bringing you stuff, just be extra vigilant because it might suddenly be snakes," he said.
Queensland Fauna Consultancy principal ecologist Bryan Robinson said cats commonly initiate contact with snakes.
"It's like a ball of wool you don't have to throw around, it moves by itself, and cats are highly inquisitive," he said.
Mr Robinson said cats can be quite resilient to snake venom, but might receive an envenomating bite when bitten on the snout or paws.
"I saw a cat that was bitten by an eastern brown. It was basically paralysed and lost its bodily functions for about two days, but then it woke up the next day and had its head upright," he said.
"Snakes are first of all cowards. They're not interested in confrontation, they want to avoid the thing that's larger than themselves."
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