CAMBRIDGE -- A four-foot-long ball python reported missing in Kitchener in early June has been found safe in Cambridge more than two months later.
Sarah Arndt, with Ground Search and Rescue Kitchener-Waterloo, said the snake, named Little Lady, was located around 1 p.m. on Tuesday in the area of Dolph and King Streets in Preston.
The python had gone missing from a residence near Chandler Drive in Kitchener around June 9.
On Tuesday, Arndt said the rescue group was contacted by someone who had located a snake, but they weren't sure it would be Little Lady because of the distance between Kitchener and Cambridge.
The distance between Chandler Drive and where the snake was found in Preston is about 12 kilometres.
Stephanie Bilodeau said she discovered the snake sitting in the sun in an apartment parking lot.
"I was kind of confused," Bilodeau said. "I was like 'someone is missing their pet.' You don't just casually lose a python."
She posted about the pytho non a Facebook group, which led to someone putting the pieces together and connecting Bilodeau with Little Lady's owner.
Bilodeau said she stood with the snake for about half and hour to make sure it was safe until the owner arrived.
Little Lady's owner confirmed it was their snake by the python's markings.
"At first he was like, 'it's not her' and then he had another look, but because she had gotten so skinny he's like, 'it's her, it's her,' and I was like, 'oh thank goodness,'" she said.
Bilodeau says she's already received many messages of thanks from the python's owner, adding on Tuesday night, Little Lady was apparently one very hungry snake.
Ardnt said they were happy to help Little Lady get back home, but added they don't know how she made it Cambridge.
"She could have followed the Grand River," she said. "There are a lot of rodents and prey along that route, so that would be a path she could take and wind up in Cambridge. Or, maybe she took shelter within a vehicle and made her way to Cambridge, we are not really sure."
