A mum was left hiss-terical after her four-year-old daughter discovered a four-foot long snake in her bathroom - just a week after moving in to her new house.
Michelle Woods got the fright of her life when she found the slithering house guest at the property on Japonica Way in Norton on Friday night.
After her daughter Elishia Mann had gone to put something in the bin in the bathroom, she returned to her bedroom and told her mum that "something was moving".
“I just thought she was joking," full-time mum Michelle told the Chronicle.
"But Elishia made me go and have a look, so I went and checked the bin and nothing was there.
"But then I looked up, and I was face-to-face with a snake.
"I nearly jumped out of my skin and slammed the door shut.
"I even made sure our cat Smoker was locked downstairs in case it tried to attack it.
"I had no idea at the time if it was dangerous or not."
Michelle said she is in the dark as to how the snake got into her bathroom - but believes that a previous tenant may have kept snakes as pets.
But the encounter didn't faze brave Elishia who said: "When I saw the snake it was really still.
"I wasn't scared at all.
"I knew not to touch it.
"I'm looking forward to telling my friends about it at school."
Panicking, Michelle said she rang the RSPCA who told her they couldn't help - so in desperation, she posted an appeal on the Norton Alert Facebook group.
Within an hour, a local woman who keeps snakes had recognised her plight and identified the reptile as a corn snake, a non-venomous species normally kept as a pet.
She took it away so that Michelle and Elishia, who attends Glebe Primary School, could try and get a good night's sleep.
Michelle, 44, continued: "It was a great response.
"Obviously, they thought I was just joking at first but when I sent them a picture they posted it up online and I got some help straight away."
Michelle, who is originally from Leicester but has lived in Teesside for around four years, had only moved into the house a week earlier.
And she believes that a previous tenant may have lost the four-foot long, red and orange pet in the house and given up looking for it.
She said: "We couldn't think of another way it could have got into the house, but goodness knows where it had been for the week we lived there before we spotted it.
"I was petrified at first, and I was a bit nervous about using the bathroom for the rest of the night.
"But luckily we haven't found anything else yet!"
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