When in doubt, wave a mouse

[PiercingPrincess]

So the other night I had my first real snake scare. I got home from work fairly late and did my routine check of all the creatures before starting to study for my two midterms the following day. Upon my inspection I noticed Mocha, my pinstripe ball python (around 600 grams) was not in her usual spot. Looking closer I noticed that her terrarium door was open half an inch. Panic set in, realizing she had somehow managed to slide it open and escape and was now somewhere loose in the house, in the middle of winter (I live in Canada, we just had a huge snowfall and it was -35ish outside). I looked for her for almost 4 hours checking behind everything. The terrarium, the fridge, the stove, bookshelves, behind the bed, under the bed… I was just about to give up and continue looking in the morning when I heard a noise. I ran downstairs and grabbed a f/t mouse, threw it in a cup with warm water and ran back upstairs. After about 15 min or so i took the mouse out and waved it around like a crazy person. Hearing more noise i looked over to my snake rack that I was in the process of finishing. So I climbed on top of a chair, calling her name and then suddenly i see her head poke out. She clawed out of her hiding spot like ‘oh hey mom I didn’t see you there, can I go to bed now or have lunch or something?’ and she came right over to me no problem. The little bum didn’t even have any scratches on her, no missing scales, nothing. Needless to say she was secured in her terrarium with duct tape until I got the rack done this past weekend. Le sigh. Silly silly creature. The worst part is, now that she has had a taste of freedom every time you take her out all she wants to do is be free. =_=

Anyone else have any great snake adventure stories?

[Hartman3216]

Sure do!

I had Jake, my normal, out for a while about a month back. I set him on the floor to roam around while I stepped to the other side of the room to grab something (5 seconds max). I turned back to Jake to see him slithering into the bathroom sink/vanity area. The bottom of the vanity just has a piece of plywood nailed to it to keep it flush with the floor, but there was enough room for Jake to sneak over the board and get behind it. I start freaking out because I don't know where he can go from there because I live in a huge apartment complex and he could get in the walls and become a new tenant in another apartment! So I do the logical thing and grab the piece of board an rip it off the bottom of the vanity to see him curled up toward the back where I can't reach him. I go sprinting into the other room and grab my 9 iron and start slowly and carefully pulling him toward me. He decided he wasn't ready to come out and slipped away from the iron head and moved to the very back.....and what do you know the back left had a hole going to God knows where. I stayed calm and hooked the meaty middle of him and pulled a little quicker this time to get him to me. I was able to get him back to me, a fair bit dirtier than before, so after a quick cleaning it was back in the cage for him!!

I must say since that incident I have always noted what corners and holes are nearby that they can get into!!!