woman woke up from a nap to find a ten-foot snake by her bedroom window, trying to enter her house.
The exotic reptile tried to sneak into a house in Hereford Walk, Basildon, Essexwhile the woman slept.
The startled woman ran out of the bedroom and closed the door before she… RSPCA.
Enola Evans, a rookie RSPCA officer who had only started rescuing animals a month earlier, was given the task of removing the creature.
“It’s not every day that you wake up to a snake trying to get into your bedroom through a window — the woman was terribly shocked,” she said.
“By then there was no sign of the snake by the window, so the resident gave me permission to search her bedroom, in case it had come in and was hiding somewhere warm.
“But after a thorough check of bedding and other possible hiding places in the bedroom, the snake was still nowhere to be found.
“Because the window had been open for so long, it got quite cold there, so I decided to close it. At that moment I saw something move.
‘It was the snake, coiled around the edge of the window. He had been very well hidden, so I was very happy to find him.”
It turned out to be a corn snake, a non-venomous breed that is sometimes kept as pets.
The snake, captured on October 8, was transferred to a carriage and taken to an expert shelter to be cared for until it could be reunited with its owner or put up for adoption.
Last year, the RSPCA received 1,219 reports of pet snakes in need of help, including many stray snakes.
During the summer months, a large number of calls came in, as snakes become more active in warm weather.
RSPCA research associate Evie Button said: “Snakes are excellent escape artists and will take the opportunity to make an opening in a fence door or loose lid to make a break for it.”
Snake owners are urged to be vigilant, invest in an enclosure that is appropriate for the species and ensure the enclosure is kept secure – and locked if necessary – when unattended.