The Mysterious Disappearance of Veruca...

[Lolo76]

On Saturday morning I was getting ready for work around 10am, and briefly checked on a few of my snakes. One was Veruca the Stimson's Python, who was frantically trying to push open her tub... so I popped it open for a minute, and then closed the lid and pushed it back into the rack. Again, this was a LIDDED tub inside of a 5-shelf rack, from which none of my snakes have ever escaped. I got home from work around 8pm, and went back to check the snake tubs, mostly because I smelled something funky. Turned out the funky smell was coming from a garbage bag, but when I opened Veruca's tub she was gone!

Sooooo, how the heck did she escape from a lidded tub in a rack?? Two possibilities I'm thinking: Either I was so sleepy (10am is early for me, lol) that I didn't notice she slipped out while I had the lid popped, or I didn't close it enough to "lock," and she managed to push it open JUST enough to squeeze herself out. Bottom line, she has now been missing for almost 48 hours, and I've given up on trying to find her. I looked in all the usual spots, like in/under the snake racks, under the bed, dressers, etc, but she could literally be anywhere by now. She isn't very big, maybe 500-600g, so there could be a myriad of tiny spaces for her to hide.

Hopefully she will show up on her own, or one of my cats/dog will alert me to her hiding place. Of course, I'm also worried one of my cats will find and hurt or kill her first. Not worried about the dog since he's trained to ignore the snakes (and does), and it's unlikely the 14 or 17yo cats will bother... but my 6yo would definitely hunt a loose snake, especially one that small. My other concern is that she escaped outside, since I often have the balcony door open this time of year, but I haven't spotted her anywhere in the vicinity yet. Any suggestions on finding the little sucker, or thoughts on how she escaped? Not much I can do at this point, but the mystery is really bothering me!