'Shelly Is The True Hero:' Rescue Cat Saves Owner From Deadly Snake

Angels can have many forms. It can be a friend who has always been there for you, or a stranger who went out of his way to help you when nobody else did. But if you ask one man, his guardian angel took the form of a cat.

Nelson's daughter, Teresa Seals, told Newsweek that his father, Jimmie Nelson, wanted to have a companion now that he's living alone. So, 81-year-old stroke victim decided to pay a visit to the Claiborne Animal Shelter.

It was here that he found Shelly and decided to adopt the rescue cat to live with him at his home in Speedwell.

“When I met her, I knew she was the one,” said Seals through her Facebook post.

She added that her father really loves the cat but “he doesn't wanna act like he pays attention” although she has caught him petting the feline and making it fell loved several times.

While Seals was proud that his father finally found someone to be with him everyday, both felt blessed when Shelly saved Nelson's life last Tuesday.

Seals continued on her post that her father heard a sound in the middle of the night. At first, he thought it was just Shelly chasing a mouse. Instead, the cat discovered a snake inside Nelson's house.

And it wasn't just any ordinary snake. It was a copperhead, one of the most venomous snakes found in Tennessee.

Venomous snakes like the northern and southern copperhead, timber rattlesnake, western cottonmouth and western pigmy rattlesnake are common in the state, but it was the first time in the 50 years that Neslon had lived in the area that a serpent went inside his house.

Nelson pointed that he had “killed millions of copperhead and rattlesnakes” in the past, but the encounter was the one time that one came too close to him.

Two days after, Seals received a call from Nelson's caregiver who said that she found a dead snake under the table.

The sitter believed that the snake was dead, but she couldn't find Shelly.

“ I left work, picked up my husband, and met the sitter and dad on the front porch,” said Seals. Her husband went inside the house and saw the snake. He claimed that it looked stiff and reckoned that the reptile had been dead for a day or two.

Seals also explained that she discovered what appeared to be “claw marks on its head and neck.”

Shelly, who was uninjured in the incident, apparently killed the copperhead and brought the carcass out “to show dad his prize.

“I think the Lord sent the cat to us to save my dad. It was predestined for him to have this cat just to save his life."

“Shelly is a true hero,” Seals' post added.