'Bigger' snakes and a 'busier' season: why Wild Woofers has seen a shift

"That" being a phone call, informing her of a snake sighting in Bathurst.

And, with that, the owner of Wild Woofers Snake Catching, Pet Sitting and Dog Walking, Stefanie Lesser, was off to another call out for the season.

And the season so far has been one of her busiest yet.

She estimates that since September, 130 snakes have been caught by either herself, or fellow snake catcher Aiden Rankin.

And of these, Ms Lesser has noticed a sizeable increase in the snakes themselves.

"We've caught a lot more bigger snakes this season than in past seasons. I don't know why," she said.

Overall, the number is a drastic increase from previous years, but Ms Lesser put this down to two reasons.

The first is an increase in awareness surrounding snake catching, and relocation.

"There's no more snakes around, I think that it's just that people are becoming more aware and will actually call a snake catcher to remove a snake from a property rather than taking a shovel to it," Ms Lesser said.

The second, is that there are now more hands on deck to assist with catches.

In the past month, Mr Rankin, who was only working part-time for Wild Woofers, officially clocked on as a full-time member of staff.

"It's been really busy. Busier than in the past, so it's been so nice having Aiden on full time now," she said.

"It's been able to put us in two different places at once."

And these places could be anywhere across the Central West.

"I think it was on Sunday that we got eight snakes between us," Ms Lesser said.

"Aiden went up to Glen Davis first thing in the morning because there's a red bellied that's always been there, and then we got called for a Rylstone job, and then Perthville, Kelso, Oberon, everywhere.

"I went to Carcoar for one, and we just went everywhere."

And if she or Aiden can't get there, Ms Lesser knows who to call, and in what area to help anyone in need of relocation of a reptile.

"I know snake catchers in Wellington and Dubbo, as well as Jake in Orange, so there's a network around if we can't get to it," she said.

This network has been built in her three years as owner of Wild Woofers in Bathurst.

In those three years, she estimates that she has caught and relocated around 1000 snakes.

These have been a mix between tigers, copperheads, browns, red bellied and even a few pythons and rarer species.

And that's just the snake catching part of the business.

As a dog walker, she estimates that she walks around 300 kilometres a month, equating to around 450,000 steps, and 90 hours of walking.

And full-time staffer Mr Rankin would do around the same amount.

But, they wouldn't change a thing.

"We both absolutely love what we do," she said.

With that, she said that she would encourage anybody in need of dog walking or pet sitting to get in touch.

And she urged anyone in need of an urgent snake removal to contact her at 0477997361 to arrange for herself or Mr Rankin to attend the job.

She also said she would recommend anybody to follow the advice of local vets, if they fear their pet has been bitten.