IT WAS the last thing Lisa Summers thought she would be doing today, but the mother of three ended up catching a four-foot long Eastern brown snake in the front yard of her Anna Bay home.
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Mrs Summers said she returned home from shopping about 1pm when she saw the snake wrapped around a lizard on the front pavers of her yard.
She said she dropped her shopping bags and whether it was ‘‘being blonde or courage’’ grabbed her husbands fishing net from the garage and captured the snake.
‘‘I didn’t really want it out of my sight," she said.
‘‘I knew I had to do something, I didn’t know what, but I opened the garage and grabbed his [husband’s] fishing net.’’
Mrs Summers netted the snake as it slithered up the neighbour’s driveway.
Once she netted it however, she was stuck for what to do.
It was then the postman showed up, giving Mrs Summers the chance to grab an esky from her garage and put the snake, fishing net and all, inside, cover it up with a sheet and weigh it down with a piece of firewood.
Mrs Summers believed the snake had been disturbed when Landcom had done its quarterly clearing in the bush behind her Hanson Avenue home.
Once the snake was somewhat secured in the esky, she phoned the council and was given a number to call.
However, she was told there would be an $80 call out fee.
New to the area, having moved from Sydney to Anna Bay in May, and not able to afford the fee she did not know who else to call.
Neighbour Charlie Elias, walking by and thinking Mrs Summers had caught a koala, told her to phone Tilligerry Peninsula snake catcher John Dwyer.
About an hour later Mr Dwyer’s offsider Blake Chaffey arrived to catch the snake to later release in a suitable environment.
Mr Chaffey said it had already been a good start to the season with seven snakes caught between him and Mr Dwyer since the start of spring.
While he commended Mrs Summers on her bravery, Mr Chaffey advised others to not try and catch snakes.
The whole incident was wrapped up just moments before children began arriving home from school.