....but rather RIP... Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

*(%%&%&%&*($(#$( Kaa!!! He just HAD to pop off ALL SIX of his binder clips from the tub, only days before we were to move.

I tried the rat in a cage to entice, looking thru all the boxes as we were packing and moving, and when we found a hole in the wall of my bedroom, when the house was TOTALLY empty, I got permission to open up the hole bigger. Using a mirror and flashlight, saw that btwn the studs was empty. Cooling the house after moving and during cleaning but leaving a room warm, didn't yield any possitive results.

We moved the stove and the fridge multiple times, and still no Kaa. Emptied the pan drawer, looked in the condensor coils, and STILL no Kaa.

3 weeks after moving out, I got a call from the landlord/owner. They "found" him by the smell.

I didn't think of taking pics (as a search aid, etc.) until a couple of days later, but Kaa managed to get up INTO the top of the stove (thru the back) < I think he crawled along the "pigtail" of the power cord > and was curled up in the wiring of the control knobs themselves. He had to have gotten up in there after we emptied (but from WHERE I don't know!) the house and turned the heat off. Since I was no longer cooking, I don't know how long he had been expired, but the Sunday or Monday prev. to my getting the phone call, the new renter had baked a pizza and said the odor got VERY strong.

By estimation and speculation, we figure he died probably a week, maybe two before we "found" him. To be able to get him out, I had to take the ENTIRE top section off, all of the different backing plates, and pull all of the different pieces of wiring panel sections apart. His head was up in the knob wiring, his body was curled up and stretched out along the "ledge" and he was double up in the hole where the pigtail goes up into the wiring. About 8-10" of his tail was in a different section from the rest of him from where he was all stretched to try and fit w/part of him curled up. (Plus...being deceased for whatever length of time.....he was sort of squishy! ICK! ).

Didn't even DAWN on me during the earlier searches, to try and take the backing plates and sections of the stove OFF. I'm not small appliance repair inclined, and didn't realize how a stove was put together. Now that I know what the back looks like, and the wiring, lamps, controls, I'll know how to search. (NOT that this will happen again! )

Was cleaning EVERYTHING with the chlorohexadine, and F was going to just outgas the stove, but then I got thinking.......b/c of the burn site on Kaa, and how he was stretched along the wires, there MAY have been some scorched/melted wiring. I'd hate to go to the trouble of cleaning, and then have a spark and fire somewhere down the road when the later renters were baking or cooking. *sigh* Soooooooo, buying a "new" used stove used up my deposit $$ I was supposed to get refunded. ......... But all part of the responsible pet ownership, right??..........I'm just soooo glad that F was so understanding about the whole thing.

But damn! Kaa was worth $500 PLUS the growth and my future plans for him!!!! Waaaaaaaaah!