- When Harry, eight, popped to the loo in the middle of the night, he encountered a scary, scaly intruder
- A thick snake was curled up tightly at the bottom of the bowl
- He alerted his parents who quickly called a snake catcher to come and remove it
- But the snake, nicknamed ‘Tina’, wasn’t going without a fight
- Nhung Nguyen, from Brisbane, Qld., shares how Tina forced the family to use a public toilet for four days with her sss-tubborn takeover…
Stretched out on the couch with my hubby Jack, I sipped my cuppa.
Our son Harry, eight, was in bed and finally I could put my feet up.
But just then Harry shouted from the bathroom.
“Mum! Dad! Come quick!” he yelled. “There’s a snake in the toilet!”
Read more: I survived a deadly brown snake bite
Knowing our boy had an active imagination, I didn’t believe him right off.
“What kind?” I joked, rolling my eyes at Jack.
“No clue, but it looks pretty big to me,” Harry called.
“Go and look,” Jack urged.
So, I peered into the toilet and my hand flew to my mouth.
A thick brown and white snake was curled up in the water at the bottom of the bowl!
“Oh my God!” I said. “What if it’s poisonous?”
I’d never seen a snake in my life!
Jack was much calmer, googling snake catchers, and just 10 minutes later, Lucas from Lucas’ Reptile Rescue was at the door.
Taking one look, Lucas told us our scaly intruder was a carpet python.
Seeing our shocked faces, he assured us that although the snake was a decent size, it wasn’t venomous.
“It likely slipped into the toilet bowl as the water would help soften its skin before shedding,” he explained.
We all watched Lucas try to free the snake using a snake hook.
“Come on, Tina,” he said.
Hearing he’d nicknamed the snake after realising it was female made us giggle.
“I can’t get her out tonight,” he said. “But keep the bathroom shut and the window open. With any luck, she’ll slither out.”
That night, I didn’t sleep a wink.
I tiptoed back into the bathroom every few hours to take a peek down the toilet.
It looked like Tina had disappeared, but when I flushed to check, the bowl filled with water so I knew she was still in the pipes.
The next morning, with our bathroom out of action, we had no choice but to use the public toilet near the park!
After getting Harry to school, I spotted Tina’s tail in the loo, so I called Lucas again.
Although he spent a good 30 minutes working to get her out, she managed to slip away.
“I’m sure she’ll leave,” Lucas said. “Don’t worry.”
After another day of using public toilets, I was at my wits’ end.
Googling, I found lemongrass oil is repellant to snakes because of its strong smell.
I hoped adding a few drops might help Tina on her way.
A day later, Tina popped her head out of the water.
Quickly, I called Lucas.
“I’m on my way,” he said. “And I’m bringing help!”
Lucas and Mark Ciobo spent three hours trying to free Tina.
He even sat on the bathroom floor holding her body, waiting for her to give up the struggle, but she wouldn’t budge!
In the end, he admitted defeat and let go.
“She’s smarter than your average snake catcher!” Lucas said.
Two days later, I nervously opened the bathroom door.
There was Tina on top of the toilet!
This time, Lucas caught her in no time and let us know she was a whopping three metres long.
Once he’d given her the all-clear from any injuries, he released her back into the wild.
“I can’t wait to tell my friends at school!” Harry said.
Since then, we keep the bathroom window closed and we haven’t had any more slippery visitors.
When I think about how we lived for four days with a snake in our toilet, I’m practically hisssterical!
