ANYBODY who freaks out on hearing snake stories, stop reading now.
Judy Drake, from Naringal, Victoria, was cleaning out the shed and came across a couple of life-size rubber snakes she had bought to stop the blackbirds building nests in the shed.
Despite their uncanny resemblance to the real thing, the snakes never worked, so into a box they went to be thrown out.
A week later, Judy was in the shed and noticed one of the snakes was back sitting on a cardboard box.
Thinking her husband Wilf had retrieved it and put it back, she reached out to chuck it out again.
Just as she was about to touch it, a little fork tongue slithered out of its mouth, scaring Judy witless.
"The hairs came up in my arm and my heart just about stopped," she said.
As much as she'd wanted to dispatch the critter, Judy did the right thing and called local snake catcher Daniel Howard Jones, who arrived promptly and soon had it in the bag.
"He assured me he'd release it well on the other side of Warrnambool," Judy said.
Phew. And it's only November.
