So Lucky! (and relieved)

[blaise]

Stayed home from work yesterday because I was sick and was doing a quick check on my animals before collapsing back into bed when I realized Maverick was not in his cage . Even if I hadn't been feeling so sick, the prospect of searching every nook and cranny of my apartment was pretty overwhelming. My biggest worry was that he would get out of my apartment and then I'd really never find him.
I figured my best chance at finding him would be to wait until nighttime and then hang out in the living room and just wait. I also turned on the red incandescent bulb by his cage that I only use on feeding days to make his F/T mouse really warm. He was due to be fed yesterday and I figured one of the reasons he had escaped might have been he was hungry and if he saw the light on he might come to investigate.
So I turned off all the lights except for the red bulb, took a quick shower, and went back into the living room where my chihuahua and I sat in the dark, staring at the empty cage. We were sitting there for less than a minute when I heard a rustling behind me and sure enough I see the outline of a snake crawling out of a bag of rawhide dog bones sitting on a table.
After returning him to his home I offered him a mouse and he ate it right away and settled down. I was sooo lucky to find him so quickly and easily, I know. I wonder if he saw the red bulb on and really did connect it with food and thats why he came out. Anyway, just had to share my lost and found success story

[littleindiangirl]

Big congratulations on the quick find!

[blaise]

Thanks! This is my first BP, or snake at all for that matter. Have had him for about a month and had no problems switching him to F/T and he also had a good shed last week. I thought maybe I had gotten TOO lucky with him and my luck was about to run out when I saw he'd escaped.

[cassandra]

Welcome to escaped snake club...the first rule of escaped snake club is...check your enclosure so you don't have that heart attack moment ever again!

<-- card carrying member of escaped snake club

But I'm sooo glad you found him quickly!

[joepythons]

I am glad you found him

[blaise]

Yeah, cage is now super secured and will remain so because I have no wish to see if he would be as easy to find if it happened again.

[Beardedragon]

who says snakes are not smart? Hr was waiting in the bag for when your chihuahua went near it

[blaise]

I know, he probably got tired of waiting in ambush lol. I was worried about having Maverick loose in the apartment with my dog. He's a chihuahua and actually has a pretty calm, laid-back personality for a small dog but I wasn't sure what would happen if they were to have an "encounter" while Mav was loose.
My dog was so funny though, I think he realized that whatever was in the tank before had gotten out and that we were waiting for it to come back. That night when I set the tank on the ground with the light on next to it in hopes of luring Mav back my dog just laid a few feet in front of the cage--staring at it. And when I left the room and came back a few minutes later he was in the same position, almost like he was watching and waiting to alert me if anything happened.
Why Maverick was in the bag of dog bones I don't know...but I'm glad he was because they move so quietly the only reason I heard him was the plastic bag rustling. He probably had some big plan to scare the dog haha.
Other than standing guard over the empty cage the other night, Elton hasn't shown any interest in the snake so far, maybe because it is so quiet and really only active at night. He shows a little more interest in my tortoises though, ESPECIALLY when I feed them. He would obsess and beg while I prepared their veggies, acting like he wanted some so bad. One day I gave him a piece of spinach just to show him that he really didn't want to eat what tortoises eat, and he ate it--and wanted more! Guess I'm lucky that he isn't obsessed with wanting to eat what the snake eats lol ewwwwww.