Oct. 7 (UPI) — A Georgia family whose dog raised a late night ruckus in the back yard made a surprising discovery on the porch: a Burmese python.
Marietta resident Paul Hernandez said he woke early Wednesday morning when his family’s pet dog, Alaska, started to bark loudly on the back porch.
“I hear my dog barking, and I went outside and there was something black on her bed that she usually sleeps on and she was barking at it,” Hernandez told WGCL-TV.
“She looked like she was trying to not eat it, but she looked like she just wouldn’t leave it alone.”
Hernandez said he retrieved his phone from inside the house so he could use the flashlight to get a better look at the object.
“I turned it on and it was snake, it didn’t look like a snake I had ever seen before,” he said.
Hernandez brought Alaska outside and waited for his father, Ben, to wake up about 7 a.m. The father and son went out to the back yard and discovered the snake now was slithering on a chair.
“When I saw her, I knew she was a Burmese python because I have seen them on TV shows,” Ben Hernandez said.
The family contacted animal control, which took custody of the snake and confirmed it was a Burmese python.
Burmese pythons are not native to the United States, but a population has been established in the wild in Florida, where they are considered an invasive species.
Animal control officers said the snake was likely an escaped pet.
“He said that it was probably somebody’s pet the way she acted when he grabbed it,” Ben Hernandez said of the animal control officer. “She was not aggressive at all, so she’s used to people.”
The snake is being kept at an animal control facility while officials try to locate its owner.