None of us particularly enjoy Canberra's freezing winters, none less so than our native snakes and other reptiles.
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In fact, they go into a coma like state called brumation just so they don't have to deal with those frosty mornings scraping ice off the windshield.
But brumation is an added difficulty for wildlife carers that are trying to rehabilitate injured reptiles, especially snakes.
Volunteer snake catcher with Wildcare, Frances Carleton, is caring for a snake that was rescued from a wok base being used as a pot plant holder.
The tiger snake, dubbed Sugar Ray, had been trying to feed on another snake which had become similarly entangled and got stuck.
Sugar Ray suffered constriction wounds, scale damage and ant poisoning from hundreds of bites he received while stuck and it took two handlers and an angle grinder to free him.
Ms Carleton has had to keep the snake in a special box which can be kept at 26 degrees to convince him that it's summer so he won't enter brumation.
Sugar Ray can only heal if he's eating and drinking and able to shed his skin to repair the damaged scales.
Canberra snake catcher and ANU academic Gavin Smith has had to rescue snakes from all sorts of unusual places.
He thinks the most unusual one was a red-bellied black snake from underneath a football team's kit bag in the male change rooms.
"It could have been quite a dangerous situation if they'd picked up the bag and in a confined space like that," Dr Smith said.
But the team had done everything right, he said, they locked the door and left it well alone.
He's rescued snakes from primary schools, hospitals, inside people's work boots, inside fridges and once had to take apart a whole washing machine to remove one.
"The biggest part of my job is education and managing people's reactions," he said.
While calls drop off dramatically in winter, people do find brumating snakes around their garden and relocating them at this time of year can be dangerous for the snake.
One man recently found two Eastern Brown snakes brumating in a wood pile he'd transported from Bega to Canberra. He called Dr Smith and then drove them all the way back to disrupt them as little as possible.
One tip from Ms Carleton was to put anything piled up in your garden on pallets so snakes can pass easily under them.
She also said to leave snakes well alone and call a handler to come and remove them if necessary. She reminded people it is illegal to kill a snake and if you find one trapped in a mouse trap - which is common - call a handler because it can take a snake up to six months to die.
And remember, "they really don't have any malicious intent towards humans at all."
