Trog’s reputation was gaining proportions appropriate to that of a lion. She seemed to have no fear as she attacked visiting cattle dogs, our own dog Mungo, and the cows when they were near the fence.  Our guests were wary of her as were we.

She spent her days out hunting despite the collars and bells we put on her but thankfully, rodents were more at risk than the birds. I used her as a mouse catcher one day when I saw a mouse run under the kitchen dresser.  After I pulled it out from the wall Trog was small enough to get into the space and successfully caught the poor creature. We hated  ourselves for having facilitated the poor mouse’s torture at the paws of Trog and promptly rescued it from her mouth and translocated it to the far end of the property, hopefully to survive the fright.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when Trog became too scared to go outside. She avoided it but when she had to go she would go to the door, peep her head out, looking around before she would venture forth. She was obviously frightened of something; but what?

After a couple of days of this behaviour we started looking to see if we could work out what had caused our feisty cat’s alarm. It didn’t take us long to find the reptile that Trog knew she would be a nice meal for.

A huge Diamond Python. Not a venomous snake but it could still give a bit of a bite and could certainly swallow Trog whole without any trouble. We knew we had to move it for Trog’s sake but our nerves were a little reluctant. When it started to make a move to come into the house we knew we had no choice but to translocate it immediately.

Rod collected the necessary implements for capturing it, an empty chicken feed sack and a golf club. As it stretched itself towards the kitchen door Rod manipulated it with the golf club, turning it back towards where I was standing holding the sack open. “Put his head in” Rod yelled at me.

“It’s alright for you. You’re nowhere near it. It’ll bite me.”

“It won’t kill you. Put its head in.” I did as ordered and eventually we had the 2 metre snake securely in the bag which I then held shut at my feet in the car. We drove up the road and released it.

We saw several other diamond pythons around the house that summer but they moved on by themselves and didn’t see Trog as a potential meal.