text: 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 wasn'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.
target: 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 3.5 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 .