Cat alerts Australian man to venomous snake hiding in his shoe

OLDBURY, Australia, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- A Western Australia man said his cat tipped him off to the presence of a venomous snake in his shoe just as he was about to put it on his foot.

Ivan Mcnamara of Oldbury, near Perth, said he was playing video games Tuesday evening when he noticed his 4-month-old rescue kitten was paying peculiar attention to the corner of his bedroom.

"I was pretty intent on my game, so I didn't pay it much attention," Mcnamara told WA Today.

He said he put the game down when he heard his girlfriend, Heidi Schobel, pull into the driveway.

"I went to put on my shoes, and I noticed the cat was staring at it very, very intently -- something didn't look right about the situation," Mcnamara said. "I was trying to see what he could see... then I realized it was a snake."

He said the serpent appeared to be a baby tiger snake.

"It had its body inside the shoe, and its head was in a strike position. Obviously because the cat was clawing and lunging at it," he said.

"The snake bolted out of the shoe, and was making to hide behind a cabinet in the room," he said. "I couldn't risk losing it."

Mcnamara said he used another shoe to pin the snake to the ground before catching it in a plastic tub.

Schobel posted pictures of the snake on Facebook before the couple released it outdoors.

The couple said the snake wasn't the first to visit their home -- they recently captured an eastern brown snake that found its way into the house.