I didn't scream, I didn't shout or anything - I just froze

Doris Davies, 66

Mrs Davies - who is terrified of snakes - immediately telephoned a reptile expert for help.

"I didn't scream, I didn't shout or anything - I just froze," she said.

"I don't mind pets, but when it's a slimy snake I just don't like it".

Rob Parker from the Rhyl Aquaria rushed to her aid - and immediately recognised it as a non-poisonous milk snake belonging to someone he knew.

It had been missing for eight months.

Mr Parker thinks the snake - called Half Pint - must have slithered under the floorboards in terraced houses from one end of the street to the other.

Although they can survive for months without food if they have to, it is likely he had been surviving on a diet of mice and had managed to keep his body temperature up with heat from radiators and central heating pipes.

Half Pint has now been reunited with his owners Pete McNaught and Diane Jones, and is living happily in their new home in Kinmel Bay, Abergele.