Birthday Present from Kisasa (A not-so-short story!)

[JLC]

Gotta love snakes....

So....I keep Kisasa's tub here in the office with me, which is in the downstairs part of the house with the dining room, kitchen, living room, etc. She's in a large iris tub on the TV shelf of an old entertainment center behind me. Because I keep the entry foyer light on 24/7, I have a "blankie" that I use to cover her tub up at night so she gets it nice and dark. (It also helps hold the warmth in when the house temps drop at night.)

Just a short while ago...after catching up on the forums and such...I go over to check on her. Lift her blanket and don't see her...which is to be expected 'cause she's always asleep in her hides. I check the acu-rite that got wet to see if it's working. (See the Acu-Rite thread) No luck. Ah well. At least her tub is still all clean and nice. I glance into her hides to see if she's laying hot or cool.....

.......

It's dark in the hides....but she's too big to cram herself so far back in them that I can't see her...... right??

Right.

I go to open the tub so I can lift the hides off of her....and the lid is not snapped into place. Needless to say, the hides are as empty as they appeared to be at first glance. I distinctly remember snapping it into place after cleaning her tub yesterday. I hadn't used clamps on the lid though, not since moving up to this larger Iris tub, because it snaps tightly on all four sides with no give at all. (It's actually a bit of a pain even for me to open up!)

But now it's not snapped. And she's not in there. I know she was there when I covered her up last night 'cause I could see her fat butt poking out of her hide.

Of course, I start looking in the most obvious places...behind and under and inside the furniture under and immediately around her tub. My big fear was that she'd move to this side of the office where our desks are because they are flush to the floor at the front and sides, but have a gap in the back where a wiley snake could get under them. And I have no hubby in the house to help me move them....not to mention a HUGE fear of moving a heavy piece of furniture and crushing her accidently.

She's not under, behind, in, or around the entertainment center her tub sits on...nor the other desk beside it. (We have a LOT of furniture in here) Not behind anything that I can shine my flashlight behind. Not in the dining room.

I move into the kitchen....and notice something about the pantry that had sort of registered in my mind earlier this morning, but really clicked into place right then. There were bottles of stuff and cans of soup and junk...on the floor. (Nothing broken, thank goodness!) I was hopeful as I started picking stuff up, because the floor of my pantry is a mess of clutter and fluffs of plastic grocery bags that my son can't seem to keep contained in a single bag. Perfect snakey hiding....right?? So I'm putting stuff back on the shelves (she had apparently somehow gone almost all the way to the top shelf...knocking stuff over as she went! She must have had a grand time playing on the Pantry Playground.

I get the stuff put back on the shelves...and start picking up the plastic bags....when I feel something wet. I sniff it...urine! Look at the bag more closely and find a bit of urates on it. VERRRY interesting. She's not in the pantry after all...but I have definitive proof that she was there.

Throw bags away...wash hands....wonder if I'll be able to turn on any appliances this weekend if I don't find her. I'd be scared of burning her or washing her or something. Check under appliances....man, it gets disgusting under there! No sign of her.

By now, I'm praying, "Please, Lord...help me find her! Please don't let her be someplace dangerous or where I can't get to her!"

I figured before I started moving heavy furniture, I'd look every other place first. So I move into the coat closet. This is a narrow, but very deep closet because it goes under the stairs. Right behind the coats, the ceiling drops to about 4' from the floor. It's our storage space for anything too valuable to risk in the heat of the garage...so it's filled with heavy boxes of my hubby's comics and my photographs and other collectables.

I push the coats out of the way and work my way into the closet....shining the flashlight around and in between boxes....

OOoohhhhhhh....happy little fat striped butt!!! Poking out from behind the last box farthest back against the rear wall of the closet!



It was a pain moving all those boxes out to get to her...and I still have to put them all back. But...it was something I could do myself. There was little danger of squishing her. She was none-the-worse for wear, but did seem a bit stressed out.

Now she's back in her tub. With clamps on the lid.

And as I type this...she's poking at the corner of the lid like a husky at the end of its chain. I think I'll add something heavy to weigh down the lid and back up those clamps.

Up til this...she'd never once shown an inclination toward escape. Just goes to show one should never assume any sort of constant behavior with these silly critters!

Lovely birthday present today....a Snakey Treasure Hunt.

Sorry so long and wordy.....thanks to anyone who actually wades through the whole story!

[juddb]

Great story.... I can only imagine one of my snakes getting loose i would be terrified....

[Shelby]

Haha.. that's a cute story.. glad you found her so quickly.

[Ironhead]

Glad you found her Judy!

[Broseph]

glad you found her Judy


maybe she new it was your birthday and wanted to give you a surprise....

[tweets_4611]

Haha....she didn't escape....she bought you a present and hid it in the closet. She was just going to get it for you (and she wanted some chips to help her wait till her next meal) See....she was just thinking of you the whole time!! ^_^

Glad you found her so quickly!!

[tigerlily]

I'm sorry that she gave you the run around this morning, but at least you found her.

[Ladydragon]

aww your snake loves you by making sure you get your exercise for the day! At least you found her quickly and all is well.

[frankykeno]

Heavens she sure had a good slither of it didn't she! She left lots of clues though so you could find her. Too bad she couldn't jump out and yell SURPRISE! though lol. Glad she's home safe and sound again.

[kavmon]

good job finding her judy! determination...




vaughn