BUCKHEAD, Ga. — A family in Buckhead woke up to a slithering surprise on their back doorstep over the weekend.
"I was getting a rake to pick up the leaves and when I walked down three steps I just saw in front of me a big snake," Thomas Smith said.
Thomas, surprised, quickly backed up and realized the snake wasn't moving. He called his wife Katherine over, and she was equally surprised to see the unexpected house guest.
Thomas added that it was the biggest snake he'd ever seen, bigger than any he had ever seen in a zoo.
"If I'd taken three more steps I would've stepped right there on the tail," he said.
The Smith family decided to call animal control and Thomas also posted on the Nextdoor app. Comments started pouring in from neighbors on the app asking about the snake and offering advice.
"I had no intentions to harm it, I just wanted to find out if it was a lost pet or what danger we found it to be in and make sure it wasn’t out in the neighborhood," Thomas said.
It turns out the snake was a large boa constrictor that may have been looking to get out of the cold. The Smith family said they live near a creek and a park so the snake could have easily slithered over to their place from there.
After reaching out on the app, a fireman from Decatur responded that he was coming to help the family with their new house guest. Fireman Bobby, a snake expert, ended up taking the boa constrictor and is now rehabilitating her.
"We're very lucky that Bobby came to the rescue quickly and we got a report today that the snake is rehabbing well and is on her way to a full recovery," he said.
