Puppy lucky to be alive after tussle with python

Buster the puppy had a lucky escape after being rescued from the jaws of a python in his backyard in Queensland, Australia. Sunshine Coast snake catcher Mark Neath was the man to save the day, after he received a call late on Wednesday night from a distraught Buderim woman who said a snake had wrapped itself around her puppy's head.



Mr Neath rushed to the home and arrived within 12 minutes to find the a 1.4-metre coastal carpet python overpowering the shih tzu cross maltese under a deck. He went to work to prise apart the two animals, reaching under to pull the tangled ball of fur and scales onto the deck. "At this moment Buster let out the most spine-chilling howl of despair, pain and terror,"





Mr Neath said about the incident. "While it was excruciatingly awful to hear it was, in a way, extremely heartening as it meant that I was almost certainly going to save Buster." Mr Neath said when pythons attack they usually would bite the intended meal and then wrap around the prey to constrict. The python had latched on to the side of Buster's face, next the jaw, and then wrapped around the dog's head. "Buster was subdued but not constricted where it counts," Mr Neath said.



"Saving the puppy meant unwrapping the snake then convincing the snake to... unbite the dog. I started unwrapping the python who then proceeded to rewrap itself around Buster's neck. Very quickly I had the python wrapped around my arm but still biting the puppy. It was then a simple matter to unhook the python then place it into the bag." Buster survived, but he was dazed and bleeding after the attack. He was taken to the vet and given painkillers and after a clean up was back to his old self. Mr Neath was later he reunited with the lucky puppy he saved who was now "full of bounce again".