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GORHAM, Maine -- An 8-foot-long snake found in a Maine woman's washing machine will go on display at a wildlife park Friday, reported WMTW-TV in Portland.

The station earlier reported that a woman checking her laundry Wednesday afternoon found the snake wrapped around the clothes inside the washing machine in her home.

The snake somehow got into the water pipes of the 1800s-era farmhouse in Gorham and slithered its way up to the second floor.

Mara Ranger said that when her load of laundry was done, she reached into the machine and felt something move.

"I take my jeans out, and then I put my hand back in there to get more, and something moved under my hand," Ranger said. "I jumped back and, all of a sudden, its head starts coming out of the washing machine. It looked huge."

Ranger said she closed the lid but fought her fear and did not slam it to avoid hurting the snake. Then she called the police and animal control and e-mailed WMTW.

Getting the twisted snake into a bag proved to be harder than expected as the snake made a mad dash toward the crowd that gathered around the washing machine. Ranger's mother, Mary, nearly collapsed.

"I had the willy-willies, and I'm not kidding," Mary Ranger said.

Initially, authorities thought the snake was 4-foot boa constrictor, but it turned out to be a reticulated python.

Richard Burton of Maine Animal Damage Control arrived to handle the incident. He's been to a half-dozen snake recoveries this year alone, but even he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Last year in Lewiston, I took one out of a woman's shower; it came down her shower head," Burton said. "They get very dehydrated, and they can sense a water source and they go to it, travel in pipes, suspended ceilings, in bathrooms, anything like that to get to a water source."

Burton said the snake used to be somebody's pet. He guessed that once it grew larger, the owners tossed it out in the wild. Officials said it had been living on its own for at least a month.

"Now that it's gone, I'm going to be checking crevasses and corners," Ranger said. "I'm going to be looking in the tub first -- before and after, maybe even during the rinse cycle. I'm just a little paranoid right now."

The python is heading to its new home at New York's Wild Animal Kingdom.