At first, Aria Shelton thought there was something wrong with her insoles when she put her boots on.
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In reality, the real problem proved to be much scarier than that.
And much scalier.
"I put my foot in the boot and thought the insole had just flipped over. I flipped it over and saw that instead it was a red-bellied black snake inside," she said.
"Thank goodness I didn't put all my weight on it and I had thick socks on, otherwise I would've been bitten."
The Canberran was visiting her grandmother in Theodore on Thursday evening, only leaving her boots outside on the front porch for less than five minutes.
When she came back, the 1.2-metre snake had already slithered inside and made itself a home.
"It was curled up a few times towards the toe of the boot, and it looked pretty snug in there," Ms Shelton said.
"I was very shocked and very surprised."
Snake catcher Gavin Smith was called in to help get rid of the red-bellied black snake.
While the Canberra-based catcher said he's found snakes in all sorts of unusual places, from underneath cars and football kits to Costco car parks, he said he never expected to find a snake in a boot, a reference to a line made famous by Woody in the movie Toy Story.
"An actual snake in a boot is quite extraordinary," he said. "It's not common to find them in a place like that."
Mr Smith said snakes often try to find small and enclosed spaces when they're in a different area.
"A snake might be misplaced when it travels on a car and comes off, and it's dropped into a new environment," he said.
"It will then desperately try to find somewhere safe and warm."
Red-bellied black snakes can grow up to 2.5m in length and are often found in places near bodies of water.
While red-bellied black snakes are endemic to Canberra, they're not as commonly seen in the capital compared to other species such as eastern brown snakes.
The snake catcher said it was lucky Ms Shelton wasn't bitten.
He released the snake back into the wild in a safe location early on Friday morning.
Ms Shelton said while she had a lucky escape, she did have an interesting story to tell.
"Everyone gets a good giggle out of it because of the Woody quote," she said.