In brief
Rachel Bloor, an Australian resident, had a shocking waking experience as she found a 2.5-meter-long python curled up on her chest. After calmly extricating herself and securing her dogs, she later helped the python back outside through the window from which it entered. Despite the unusual situation, both Bloor and the python remained unharmed, highlighting the unexpected wildlife interactions that can occur in Australia.
In the middle of the night on Monday, Rachel Bloor stirred in her bed to find a heavy weight curled up on her chest.
Half asleep, she reached out for her dog - and instead found herself petting a smooth, slithering object.
As Bloor retreated further under the covers and pulled them up to her neck, her partner switched on the bedside lamp and confirmed the Brisbane couple's fears.
He goes, 'Oh baby. Don't move. There's like a 2.5m python on you, Bloor told the BBC.
Her first words were expletives. The second, an order to evacuate the dogs.
I thought if my Dalmatian realises that there's a snake there... it's gonna be carnage.
The dogs secured outside the room - and her husband wishing he was with them - Bloor began carefully extricating herself.
I was just trying to shimmy out from under the covers... in my mind, going, 'Is this really happening? This is so bizarre'.
She believes the carpet python - which is non-venomous - had squeezed itself through the shutters on her window onto her bed below.
Once freed from the python, she began casually feeding it back out the way it came in.
It was that big that even though it had been curled up on me, part of its tail was still out the shutter.
I grabbed him, [and] even then he didn't seem overly freaked out. He sort of just wobbled in my hand.
The same couldn't be said for her stunned husband, but Bloor herself was barely fazed, having grown up on acreage around snakes.
I think if you're calm, they're calm.
Though if it had been a cane toad - one of the country's most damaging, and ugly pests - that would be another story, she said.
All animals and humans escaped from the interaction unharmed. Carpet pythons are constrictors that are common in coastal areas of Australia, and usually eat small mammals such as birds.
