An Escape Success Story.

[Bones]

Last Sunday, I finally moved in with my boyfriend. My first priority was to get my snake's tank set up. After a long day of moving, I finally found some time to get his tank set up, but I realized I had forgotten nearly all of his husbandry supplies at my dad's! All I had was my Herpstat and the thermometers, which I had put into my purse. For that night, I made him some makeshift hides, found a dish I could use as a water bowl, and hooked up my Herpstat and thermometers. I figured that would last him through the night until I could pick up his "real" supplies.

About 9am, my boyfriend texted me to ask me where my snake was and to tell me that I left the lid off. I told him that he should be in his hides. Boyfriend texted me back "babe... I'm sorry, but he's not in there". I instantly thought he was joking and I replied "if you are kidding and you don't tell me now, I am going to be p*ssed when I get home". He assured me that he wasn't kidding and the he had kenneled up his two Dachsunds to make sure they wouldn't get my snake if they saw him. I guess with all the crap I had going on, I forgot to put the lid on. How could I be so stupid? I contemplated going home early to look for Bones, but I couldn't afford it. Needless to say, I raced home from work that day.

As soon as I got home, I saw that my boyfriend's 15 year old little sister already had the couch flipped over, the cushions on the ground, some of the moving boxes that were in the house were strewn around, etc. So, I had to help her tear the rest of the house up. I also called my best friend to come over to help us. The three of us looked EVERYWHERE. In every single crack and crevice we could find. We spent 2 hours looking and even looked in places that we had already looked before, just to be sure... and we still couldn't find him. He's only 2' long, so there are a lot of places that he could get to.

We decided to give up and that maybe we'd see him sometime during the night or that he would pop up sometime soon. My best friend went home, I finally started dinner, and little sis and I started watching a movie. By this time, it was dark. I decided to go look on our screen porch one last time. I had the flashlight in my hand and I went to move it to unlock the door. When I did, I shined the light onto a window unit AC box that I originally thought was sealed. We never checked that box because it had heavy stuff on top of it and we didn't think he could get in there. I saw a hole about 3" in diameter in the bottom corner of the box. I was thinking "if I was a snake, this is where I would be".

I shined the light in that hole and what did I see? My sweet baby staring back at me! I told little sis to lift the stuff off the top so I could make sure he didn't try to slither away. As I lifted the box, he didn't even flinch. He looked up at me like "sup, mom"? I grabbed him and put him back in his tank. That was the first and last time I will leave his lid off. This has definitely taught me a lesson.

So, for anyone else who has an escaped snake; don't give up looking for him. Just when you thought you looked everywhere, they may be in that one place you didn't look. Make sure you don't make the same mistake again because next time it gets out, you might not be so lucky.