Snake in a cereal box among RSPCA’s most unusual rescues of 2018

A snake that slithered out of a cereal box was among the most surprising callouts attended by the RSPCA in 2018, the charity has revealed in an annual report of its more unusual rescues.

The 3ft long reptile – believed to be an escaped pet – interrupted breakfast at a Sheffield home before slithering into the dishwasher.

Katie Hetherington, the animal collection officer who responded to the call for help from the unnamed man in May, said: “I think he was expecting to have Cornflakes for breakfast, not corn snakes.

“The poor chap was absolutely terrified, I think it was the last thing he expected to find in his kitchen.”

Other shock incidents revealed in the charity’s roundup included dealing with a venomous scorpion at a hotel, a cat impaled on railings, and a hamster rescued from a 10cm wide pipe using a tiny handcrafted ladder.

The scorpion was spotted by a resident at Birmingham’s Hyatt Regency in September.

Fearless staff captured the poisonous creature in a glass before calling the RSPCA.

Vic Hurr, the officer who attended, said: “The scorpion was only small but he was a feisty little thing.

“We think he must have come out of some luggage and probably travelled thousands of miles, so he certainly had an adventure.”

The impaled cat was dealt with in London in May. Skittles, a ginger, was rushed for emergency surgery after apparently falling onto metal railings in Cricklewood.

Nicole Broster, chief inspector, said: “In all my years with the RSPCA I have never seen anything like it.

“This poor cat literally had two metal posts protruding through his body.”

The London Fire Brigade cut the railings and transported the cat, still impaled on the spikes, to a nearby vet where he was able to be saved – because the railings had narrowly missed his vital organs.

And in November, animal welfare officer Alison Sparkes built a tiny ladder from wire mesh to rescue Jamie the hamster, who had been wedged in a water pipe in Bridgwater for almost a week.

“Jamie was being looking after by a friend of his owner when he escaped and went down a 10cm-wide pipe,” she said.

“We knew he was OK as they’d been dropping food down and could hear him eating so I went home and cut a 1m long ladder from some old wire mesh, then went back, fitted it in the pipe and that evening he emerged. Very thirsty but OK.”