An Emirati woman who felt her many children and grandchildren were in danger of a snake attack, her maternal instinct told her to fight back and she emerged victorious when she caught it.
Mariam Ahmed Al Shehi, 60, a resident of Wadi Shaam in northern Ras Al Khaimah, heard the rattle in the sheep barn just after her youngest sons boarded the school bus in the morning.
She grabbed her large stick and headed into the barn. There it was - a big snake crawling towards the birds and sheep.
She hit the snake with her stick but instead of collapsing or running away, the serpent stood up and tried to attack Mariam.
“I then decided to trick the snake….so I brought a cage and put some bread in it…I then used my stock and started to gently push the snake towards the cage…finally, when it entered the cage, I locked it up,” she said, quoted by the Arabic language daily Alittihad.
The paper said Mariam came to its office in Ras Al Khaimah and presented the caged snake to them.
“She told us that she had killed more than 15 snakes of different sizes after they tried to attack her home over the past years,” Alittihad said, adding that Mariam has seven children and six grand children.