Oh my gosh!!! You won't BELIEVE this!!! Okay, so some time ago one of my BPs, a little normal female escaped into the garage and has been missing. In the mean time, I have driven to Orlando, work, school, etc. and such.

Well, today I drove 25 miles to the mall to meet a friend, and as he walked around his car to mine he leapt away and pointed, "There's a SNAKE!"

I saw the tail of a ball python disappearing under his car; this snake was BOOKING IT to get away, and as I picked it up, I looked at the pattern and immediately recognized it---IT WAS BASILICA!!!!!

I was STUNNED! I have NO IDEA how she managed to cling to the car for the whole ride, but she obviously was having NONE of that anymore, when I parked! She can't have been there the entire time, or she'd have died from the heat, but miraculously, she has NO burns, NO bite wounds, NO obvious injuries except for a tiny little scrape, although she had grease on her (gently removed with a paper towel dipped in a palmolive-water mixture, then washed off) and she was pretty stressed.

But as soon as I had her in my hands she calmed down and sat in my friend's lap for the ride home; she's now back in her cage (but in quarantine from the rest now) with a brand new hide and nice soft paper towels for substrate. She's going to get a trip to the vet just in case, and I'm going to keep an eye on her. Mom put a rat crawler in with her later and she ate it ravenously; it's too small for her normally but I figure she doesn't need the stress of a normal size meal.

I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!

I think I'm going to re-name her Lucky. Because how LUCKY is it that she didn't get eaten by the hawk that hunts out of my yard? Or a dog? Or cat? Or someone with a shovel? Or a car? And what're the chances of her managing to find something in the engine part of my car (which is the area she was coming from) and NOT be burned or squished?! AND she didn't get run over or stepped on by my friend!!! What an amazing series of coincidences. Anyways, she is now Lucky. She's earned that name!!!