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Snakes alive! A South African family found an unexpected guest wrapped around their Christmas tree: a boomslang snake, which is one of the most venomous serpents in Africa.

“I didn’t know what it was at the time, but then I Googled what snakes are in our area, and it came up immediately as a boomslang,” rattled father Rob Wild told CNN. “I thought, ‘holy Moses, this is the king of all poisonous snakes.’”

Wild, 55, a British stock trader, said that he and his wife Marcela had noticed their cats staring into the tree. The couple assumed there was a mouse hiding in the branches somewhere.

It wasn’t a mouse they found peering out from the boughs, however, but a boomslang.

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The family kept their two children away from the tree and called in a professional snake catcher, who was able to safely whisk away the holiday party crasher. The snake was female, and between 4.3 and 4.9 feet long. The snake whisperer, Gerrie Heyns, theorized to CNN that the boomslang probably slithered into the house in search of food, water or shelter, and then was probably scared into the Christmas tree when it heard or saw one of the pets or family members.