Lost snake, found snake, dismantled oven to get at him. Where was YOUR snake found?

[Spoons]

We see "Lost snake" threads on here relatively frequently. Well, it was my turn. I walked out into the living room at 4:30 AM to get ready for work and found Argus's tank door WIDE open and, of course, no snake inside. He has an Exo Terra with a latch on the front, so it must have been me not latching it properly last time I used it. We live in a 750 square foot apartment so I wasn't too worried - there's only so many places he could be.

I sent my Fiance a text to read when he got up letting him know Argus was AWOL and went to work. He looked all over the place when I was gone, and then had to leave. I looked all over when I got home from work. We set out a heat lamp and hides and water overnight, and locked the cat up (because he wants to murder the snake), and this morning when he didn't show up set up an organized search and ripped apart the apartment leaving absolutely no stone unturned.

Well, I pulled out the drawer on the oven and guess who I saw behind there on the floor? I reached in and he slipped right up in the inner walls of the oven. I'd looked under the oven already, but he must have been in the wall nestled in the insulation. We cooked on the stove this morning which must have driven him to the floor with the heat. We'd already dismantled the living room and were indeed planning on pulling apart the appliances - stove, washer, dryer - so he would have been located eventually even had he not been spied on the floor, but still - it just goes to show you can't cross ANYTHING off the list of possibilities. While I was home I actually was keeping an eye on the cat, assuming he could hear the snake moving better than I could and might lead me to him - and I did catch him once crouched down staring underneath the stove, but Argus must have been in the wall because it was a no go when I looked. I should have taken the cat more seriously!

Fiance grabbed the tools, pulled the oven apart and I reached in and grabbed him out no worse for wear. He'd been out about 30 something hours. Fiance grabbed his water dish to put it in the tank again and poor Argus was so thirsty he stretched across the way and took a drink while I was holding him. I thought it was such a weird place for him to end up and really drove the point home that he can be ANYWHERE - I wouldn't have thought his big old ball python body could ever even get under the stove - and got me thinking.

Those of you who have lost and subsequently found a snake - where did you find it? Just for fun, here are some pictures of the snake recovery!

[Coluber42]

When I was in high school I fed my BP (who was full grown by then) right before my sister and I left to go to the beach with our dad or somewhere. Apparently, I forgot to close the lid after feeding him. So one morning my mom was lying in bed, home alone in the house, and heard all this clattering and racket in the next room. She had two cats, but they were older and never knocked stuff around much or made that kind of noise. So of course, she was terrified because she thought that someone had broken in and was rummaging around. She finally worked up the courage to go see what was up. When she looked in the bathroom the first thing she saw was shampoo bottles and soap and other assorted objects on the floor, in the sink, in the toilet, etc. Then she saw the snake, who had climbed up the sink and was ambling across the countertop and the back of the toilet, and knocking over everything in his path.
Probably no one has ever been so relieved to find an escaped python in their house!

Awhile later, my corn snake also escaped, and he was found hiding behind the trash can in the same bathroom. My bedroom was at the other end of the hallway, so it's sort of strange that they both ended up in there. But maybe they both knew that there was water to be had in there; when I had them out and I'd use the bathroom, I'd run the faucet into my cupped hand for them to drink. So if they recognized the room, by smell or sight or whatever, maybe they were in there because they were thirsty. There wouldn't have been any heat sources in there, and they'd have had to make their way all the way down the hall to get there. So go figure.

[DennisM]

Insulation! Heat! It would be perfect if only there were rats in the oven!

[distaff]

Glad he wasn't a cooked noodle.

[piedlover79]

Wow! I'm glad you found him!

Mine got out, went down the hall, went through the kitchen, down the basement stairs, through the den, and into my roomate's room down in the basement where he almost stepped on him in the middle of the night when he got up to pee. I got a very angry call at 3 am telling me to come get my snake...which at first I said couldn't be one of mine, must be a wild one. Nope. Mine.

My friend's 9+ foot Red Tail got out in his tiny apartment and after hours of searching we sat down on the couch...which hissed at us. He was up inside the couch.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Many many moons ago one o the dogs knocked over the rat feeding tub. There was one small and a couple pups in it that were heading back out to the shed. Well that small took off like greased lightening behind our oven. I really did have to take the whole thing apart to get that fool out.
The RTB got an extra snack that night.
I feel your pain.

[DellaF]

My spider ball got out one night or day not sure hubby didn't latch the enclosure. We found her in the back of our bedroom closet.

[WastelandExotics]

I keep the majority of my snakes in a rack system in my living room (I live in a shoebox; give ne a break). Also occupying that living room is a very curious cat named Dexter. He looooves the snakes and always watches intently when I feed, clean, or just take them out to admire them.

One morning, I come out to the living room and THREE OF MY SIX TUBS ARE HANGING OPEN. The open tubs were all on the bottom rows so I knew Dexter had something to do with it (didnt think the snakes were coordinated enough to plan a mass break out, go figure). Queue me tearing the apartment apart, giving my partner a heart attack and shooting evil glares at a blissfully ignorant cat. Dexter and our dog didnt seem interested in helping either....

I didnt notice any blood anywhere because at this point, Dexter hadnt had any interaction with the snakes so I didnt know if he was going to try to eat them or not. I found the yearling spider girl first, behind a set of mirrors (wtf?), found my male lesser under the fridge (that makes more sense) but couldnt find my normal girl (my first snake I got when I was a wee one)to save my life. Heartbroken, I put the two I found back and secured the rack with a huge piece of plywood I had laying around the house and headed out to work.

Got home that night, procedes to look around for another hour or two and decided to get on my computer to see if anyone had any suggestions. As I go to turn on my computer tower, there she is, crammwd between the tower and the side of my desk...staring at me in the face all "oh, fancy seeing you here!"

All snakes were checked thouroughly and astonishingly unharmed. I'm also surprised Dexter came away unscathed as my snakes seem to have a pretty healthy prey drive. I guess he just wanted to check the snakes out for himself and see what all the hubb bubb was about.

Tl;dr if you have a cat SECURE THE TUBS IN YOUR RACK

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