Snake feared dead slithers back home (VIDEO)
But undefeated by the outside world and the temperatures that come with it, Noodle turned up safe and well last week in his owner's front garden.
Noodle, a rat snake, escaped from Mrs Mitchell's Barlaston home a couple of days after a fire in his vivarium last July.
The blaze in the dining room filled the ground floor of the house with smoke and destroyed part of his vivarium when it overheated.
He was being kept in a cardboard box in the airing cupboard while his owner found him a new place to live and booked him a check-up at the vets.
Mrs Mitchell, aged 28, of Bell Lane, said: "He must have pushed his way out of the cardboard box but we don't know how he got outside or where he has been for nine months.
"The only thing we can think of is that he got out of the windows, which were open because of the smoke.
"We had a look for him and put things out to try and coax him back but nothing worked.
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"It is impossible looking for a snake because they only come out at night."
Noodle was found by the same neighbour who called the fire service when the blaze happened.
He has now settled back in at home and is looking well.
Mrs Mitchell, a stay-at-home mum to one-year-old Evelyn, said: "Our neighbour knocked on the door to ask if we had lost the snake and there he was on the floor.
"It was a complete shock because I assumed he was dead being out in that harsh winter and the snow.
"He has grown quite a lot but we can recognise him because he has got a little black spot on his back.
"We think he was hibernating and the recent warm weather woke him up."
She added: "I was worried because he must have been living on live food and he may not have taken to eating dead food again but I have fed him and he is eating well."
Luckily, Noodle's equipment was still to hand and had only been packed up in the shed.
Mrs Mitchell's husband, 28-year-old Barney, who bought Noodle as a birthday present for his wife five years ago, said: "I was trying to get rid of his tank but it was a good job I didn't.
"I was shocked to see him come back and was in a bit of a panic trying to put the tank back together."
Steve Burns, a supervisor at Glovers Aquatics, in Fenton, runs the company's reptiles section.
He said: "Rat snakes are very hardy snakes and a lot of the time if there is a hole of some sort outside, the snake will go down there and keep warm underground.
"They could probably survive outside and they can hibernate."
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