You won't believe how/where Veruca was found!

[Lolo76]

Long story warning, but this is a good one!

As I posted when it happened, my female Stimson's Python (Veruca) mysteriously disappeared from her tub about 3 weeks ago... after searching almost every inch of the apartment, I gave up and figured she would show up if/when she got hungry enough. Then my 97 year-old grandmother passed away last weekend, so I flew to Boston for the funeral, and had just returned earlier tonight.

I checked on everyone after getting home, and sadly discovered one of my corn snakes was dead - probably old age/natural causes, as her age was unknown and everyone else is fine. Shortly thereafter the fire alarm for my building started going off, and eventually the fire department showed up ("only" took them ~30 minutes, lol). I was standing outside with my dog while they inspected everything, when my neighbor who's also a friend walked over, and told me they'd found a snake. Of course I went running over there, and saw a firefighter come out of the utility room holding a snake by its neck.

Yup, that snake was Veruca! I yelled "she's mine," and grabbed her from the firefighter... she was thrashing around at first, but immediately calmed down once I had her in my arms. Needless to say, all of the neighbors + firemen were a combination of amused and shocked by the whole thing. Actually, about five of those neighbors started taking pictures of us, so we'll probably be on Facebook and/or Twitter pretty soon. You know they'll be telling this story at the fire station for a while, too. LOL

Thankfully she is alive and well, just scared and a bit rough around the edges. She gulped down half a bowl of water in her tub, so obviously was thirsty too! She was found wrapped around our central alarm, and my apartment is right above that utility room... guessing she got in through a duct or pipe, as that door is very well sealed. Anyway, I do want to thank the San Jose FD for not killing her (and having a sense of humor over it), despite their pathetic response time.

Here she is, posing in front of the outside alarm: