A three metre python bit off more than it could chew when it tried to swallow a much-loved family pet . Francis Bakvis stumbled upon the gruesome spectacle on Sunday while searching for his sixteen-year-old pet cat Tiger , who had been missing for three days . After noticing a foul odour in the yard of his home in Clifton Beach , northern Queensland , Bakvis found a bloated scrub python which contained the remains of the family feline , reports Cairns Post . Scroll down for video . Francis Bakvis discovered a dead scrub python , which contained the remains of his family cat Tiger . It was n't until Bakvis tried to move the 3.5 metre long snake that its body broke open and he came face to face with the grim truth . ' I pulled the dead snake on to the lawn , and a bit of its skin was already decomposing . I could see , there was my cat , ' Bakvis said . 'It was pretty miserable to see him go that way . He was getting old and not 100 per cent clear in his little brain sometimes . Bavkis said it was confronting for his partner and sons to find the long-term pet had died in such grisly circumstances . 'He 'd never been sick or anything , and all of a sudden he 's no longer there . To find him in the stomach of a snake is not pretty . ' Bakvis said he had never seen pythons on his Clifton Beach ( pictured ) property in 15 year of living there . A scrub python at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast . Scrub pythons can grow to be up to eight metres long , and are known to eat mammals as large as kangaroos . The black and white cat had reportedly slept on the family veranda . Bakvis said he had never seen pythons on the property in 15 years of living there . He believed the python had struggled to properly swallow the cat and died as a result . Scrub pythons can grow to be up to eight metres long , and are known to eat mammals as large as kangaroos . Pet owners are reminded to protect their animals by keeping them protected or indoors at night .
Francis Bakvis , from Clifton Beach in Queensland , discovered dead python . Mr Bakvis had been searching for his pet cat which had gone missing . When he tried to move the snake its skin split open and his cat spilled out . The three metre long python died while trying to digest the 16-year-old pet . He had never seen pythons on the property in 15 years of living there .