Dog Owner Pulls Pet From Python

An Australian woman fought a life-or-death game of tug-of-war with a 10 ft. long python to save her dog, The Townsville Bulletin reported in its Wednesday edition.

Brenda van Bovene, who lives in north Queensland, leaped to the defense of Tammy, her 11-year-old Australian Silky Terrier, after she heard the animal's desperate cries for help on Monday afternoon.

''I was in the study and Tammy was making this terrible noise,'' she said.

What she found was the carpet python coiled around the dog.

''I'm only 5 foot, 1 inch, and it looked twice as big as me -- it was a huge snake,'' she said. Despite being outsized, Bovene grabbed the snake's tail to try and break the predator's hold.

''It was all a bit of a blur, I just did the first thing that came to mind,'' she said. ''I managed to grab the tail and start to pull in the opposite direction. The snake coiled tighter but eventually let go to (flee) beneath the barbecue.''

As the snake sheltered on the patio, Bovene took her beloved Tammy inside the house. Meanwhile, her cries for help as she struggled with the serpent alerted neighbor Cameron Rowlands. He was later joined by his father, Steve, and the pair caught the python. The placed it in a pillowcase and released it into the bushland.

''We didn't injure it at all, but thought it would be best to relocate it to a non-residential area,'' she said.

Tammy has been given a relatively clean bill of health by a vet but Bovene on Tuesday placed her under ''house arrest.''

She warned an attack would occur again unless an effort was made to maintain grassed areas in the suburb.

''This was the 13th snake we've had in the past six to eight weeks,'' she said. ''All the (environment) conditions are the same as they were last year when we saw none, except for the state of the grass.

''A snake (as big as that which attacked Tammy) could easily do the same to an infant.''