And a tiger snake in a Christmas tree…

A Kilmore couple received an early Christmas present last week but it wasn’t quite what they wanted to find under the tree.

John and Lyn Lee received a visit from a tiger snake that spent the evening in their kitchen before making its way up the Christmas tree late last Monday night.

Mr Lee said he found the snake in the kitchen when he went to make some lunch while wearing shorts and no shoes.

“I just assumed the wife was pranking me because I’ve been watching people getting pranked on YouTube so I thought it was a rubber snake and then it started moving,” he said.

After warning his mother-in-law, Mr Lee went back into the kitchen and watched the snake try to get into the pantry before retreating under the stove by which point he had called a snake catcher.

“When he got here, I told him it was definitely in the stove. He said they can get into any little hole so we pulled the stove to pieces but there was no sign of it,” Mr Lee said.

“What we didn’t know is between seeing it go under the stove and calling the snake man, it must have ducked out around the wall and gone under the fridge and then during the evening, it’s made its way over to the Christmas tree.

“I’d gone to bed at midnight and was just dozing off when my wife came flying in, saying she’d found the snake under the Christmas tree, so I went out and it was curled up around the power point.”

When Ms Lee went to turn the Christmas tree lights off, she reached down towards the power point and the snake rose up and hissed at her.

Mr Lee came out into the living room and tried to scoop the snake into a rubbish bin but the snake started to get aggressive so he called the snake catcher.

“It’s after midnight but sure enough he turned up and the snake had gone three-quarters of the way up the Christmas tree and you couldn’t see it,” he said.

“He just kept tapping it and it fell down and went over in the corner and started to come around. He just got this squeegee thing and put it on its head and picked it up.”

Mr Lee said it was a reminder to keep the doors closed during summer when snakes were about.

“I’m pretty sure it’s come in through the front door because Lyn and her mum sit out there for a coffee every morning,” he said.

“It’s not really the present you want under the tree.”