“Meow-gical moment: House cat channels Disney heroics, defeats venomous snake in Phetchabun

In a scene generally observed in a Walt Disney cartoon, yesterday a house cat emerged triumphant after it tangled with a venomous snake in Thailand’s Phetchabun province. The extraordinary event occurred at a residence in the Wang Sai Thong village of Wang Pong district and startled both the homeowners and the local police.

The story emerged when Supakorn Intraprasit, head of the Wang Pong – Chon Daen Wildlife Sanctuary, received a call regarding a venomous snake hiding within a resident’s home. He and his team promptly arrived at the location, armed with snake-capturing equipment, ready to deal with the perilous situation.

On finding the snake hiding beside a wardrobe, they carefully captured it and placed it in a sack for safe release back into the wild. The snake was identified as a spitting cobra, measuring about 1.5 metres in length, reported Sanook.

The owner of the house, 52 year old Buaket Chuehong, said that she seldom spent time at home due to her frequent visits to the hospital to care for her sick father, 95 year old Kam Chuehongs, a patient at Phetchabun Hospital. However, on returning from the hospital that day, she noticed her cat, Jao Gwak, acting unusual near the wardrobe, pawing at something and making eerie hissing noises.

On closer inspection, she heard a terrifying hissing sound again that made her suspect the presence of a venomous snake, prompting her to call the Wildlife Sanctuary for help.

After the snake spat venom on the brave cat, blinding it, a neighbour, Somsuan Duangkampun, swiftly chewed some galangal and spat the juice in the cat’s eyes. This treatment, believed to be an effective traditional remedy in the village, along with tying a sacred string around the cat’s neck, seemingly improved its condition.

News of this incident spread among the locals and lottery enthusiasts, all of whom were keen to learn about the valiant cat, “Jao Gwak,” that tangled with the venomous snake and saved its owner Buaket.

Unsurprisingly, the cat-snake-tango aroused the suspicions of superstitious Thais who reached out asking for house numbers and the ages of Buaket and her father to use as “lucky numbers” for the upcoming lottery.