Sorrow. [Need shoulders to cry on]

[brokeballer]

One of my best friends who was my room mate and co-worker has been missing for a week now. I'm a mess......

[Salamander Rising]

You might as well PM me too. I am always "giving my animals too much credit" and "making them too human". This is me, deal with it.

I talk to each and every one of my snakes, and I will swear in court they talk to me too. I am not joking. My male pastel went on a feeding strike for the breeding season. No big deal. But he got it into his head he did not get enough girlfriends for his manly self, and when everyone else started eating again, he refused.

I would ask him each week if he was ready to eat, and every week he'd look me in the eye and I could hear him saying, "No, not until I get another girlfriend. That darned Kodama had three, and I only got one!" Laugh if you want to. Feel free to call me crazy, it won't be the first time. But it's true. After the last of my non pied girls ovulated, he still would not eat, and he kept giving me that look. Finally I took him out of his tub and sat him down for a talk. I told him, " Look, I know you think this breeding thing isn't fair, and you are right it isn't. However, I'd like to remind you I never intended to bring you home in the first place, but since you've been here I've only ever done my best for you. You know your my favorite male, why else would I get you out all the time ? You also know that I breed for quality babies, and let's face it you are not the best quality pastel. Yes you are more beautiful than when I bought you, but you are still not my ideal pastel and you know it. If it were only me breeding, you wouldn't have had any girl to breed with, but Kyle gave you a shot because he isn't as hung up on quality as I am. Now, Akira just ovulated, and the chances are good you get to be a daddy for me. And I have to admit, I'm kind of excited about it. Maybe one of your babies will be the kind of pastel I'm looking for, stranger things have happened than that. Now, you must get down off your high horse and eat something. You are starting to loose weight, and if you keep it up you won't be ready when the next season rolls around. You know Kyle is set on making a firefly, so he's probably going to ask me to pair you up with Mori when she gets big enough. And he's toying with the idea of making blasts with you and Freckles. So, if you are a good boy, next year you might have three girls too. But you need to eat."

Kyle comes in as I finish my lecture and put him away. And he tells me, "You know that snake cannot understand you, and you sound like a complete idiot talking to him like that, right ?" I told him to mind his own business, and he knew I was crazy when he married me. Feeding day was two days later, and guess who ate not just one rat but two ?

So sure, I'm crazy. Certifiably nuts. Gone round the bend, cheese slid off my cracker, porch light is on but nobody's home, toys in the attic, absolutely bonkers, utterly mad, however you like to say it. But I'll tell you a secret, all the best people are.

Gale

I really dig you.

[Salamander Rising]

When i first was getting into snakes i had an escapee. I put out a hide and some food for him over night. My room mate called me up a few days later and said he was going to do some laundry. I said OK, but make sure and check around the drier so he didn't get overheated if he happened to be around the drier. When he pulled the drier away from the wall it also pulled the drier vent tube out of the floor and for some reason he didn't fix it. I came home several hours later and saw the drier pulled away from the wall and a large hole going under my house. I quickly taped the hole up. For weeks i kept a hide with heat out and every few days a frozen thawed, but couldn't find him. That is when my neighbor found my snake dead inside the back of her drier. I didn't blame my room mate because it was my fault that the snake escaped in the first place. I almost think if i would of left the hole untaped he would have came back out I was majorly let down but dont give your hopes up. I once found my first snake in the back of an 18 pack of emptly beer bottles that were about to be taken out too. Check everywhere! And try not and fall asleep with your snakes like i used to!

Just make sure there is no escape routes out of your house and what not and things should be OK.

That's just it...this old place is full of 'escape routes'.

I have 4' resident Black Rat Snake who comes and goes as it pleases.

The last appearance was while I in the bathroom and it slithered around me for a while, finally coiling around my ankles and resting on my feet before it eventually went behind the bathtub.

[apparently it 'likes' me because when it appears to hubby, it usually drops down in his face from a porch rafter or something and nearly scares him to death]

A lovely Milk Snake makes an occasional visit.

They can get in and out of here with no effort at all.
[and they help keep the mice down so they're very welcome, here]

I'm sorry about your poor snake.

I didn't do laundry for over a week, fearing he might be in the washer or drier but we pulled them out and saw no sign of him.

[Salamander Rising]

For one thing, I don't think you should allow yourself to feel so personally responsible for this. It is hindering not only your search for Alice but your ability to function. Take a step back and don't force yourself to feel guilty for all this.

I know this is a very stressful and heart-wrenching time for you. But I think you ought to relax and breathe as others are telling you.

It might also help if you try not to anthropomorphize your snake. For your sake, try to temporarily tone down the "If I had just gotten him a bigger cage..." thing. I think you and I both know that is a bit of a stretch - you could give him a mansion and he would still look for (and most certainly find) ways to escape. It has nothing to do with space.

I think you need to take a step back and stop tearing the house apart. He definitely will not turn up if you keep turning over all his hiding spots; he'll just move to yet another cozy spot.

I have ceased destroying the house.
[I'm so tired]

I'm not 'anthropomorphizing' my snake.

I know the little jerk and he was blistering jealous of all the attention the Boa got.

He obviously forgot all the attention he got when he came here.
He spent more time being cuddled than all the other snakes put together but they didn't get snotty attitudes because of that.

[well, Iggy's kinda pissy about not being loved up quite as much as she used to be but a fat juicy rat pacifies her indignation] ;]

[Salamander Rising]

If you are fruity, I must be fruity too. I've cried over tarantulas. Right now my dog with Canine Cognitive Dysfuction is nearing the point where we'll need to put her down and my beloved Cyclura, Kismet, has a bacterial infection that might be just an oviduct and I'm praying is not related to an egg since she was gravid.

I had a missing blue phase iguana for two weeks. I know how hard this is and I hope and pray you find your baby.

And I don't think you are overreacting.

Gosh, I'm sorry about your babies.....

Have you tried meds or supplements for the dog?

[Salamander Rising]

They're family. That's that.
With something like this, it's hard when people tell you to control yourself. Or that it's not worth it to make yourself worry. It implies that you can just flip the caring switch on and off. Not so.

x2 on the pest control person.

My caring switch is broken.
It's permanently "on".

I've tried to be stoic/indifferent/patient/"zen"/existential/concerned but not terrified/hopeful/confident/etc etc etc.

I'm sorry but I can't be what I'm not.

I care.
I love.
I worry.

Ii can't really control any of that and will not feel at peace until I know where he is, one way or the other.

It's just how I'm built.

Perhaps a little 'back story' will explain me better;

When I was a kid, my dad always had dogs.
Naturally, I'd love the dogs and he'd tell me that so-and-so was 'my dog'.

Then we'd go away on vacation and when we got back, the dog would be gone.
He'd say "maybe it ran away' or 'somebody must've stolen him'.

Come to find out, years later, he was having people who'd bought those hunting dogs come get them while we were gone so as not to have me 'make a scene' over 'my dog' being taken away.

The worst time involved a Husky named Wolfie.
I was around 5 or so and loved that dog madly and we played together all the time.
Yes, I came back from VA Beach and he was gone...house, bowl, toys and all.
"Stolen".

As always, I searched and searched for him, just like all the others and one day my mom and I were downtown and there was Wolfie, tied to a lamp post!

I squealed with joy and he howled with delight.
We'd found each other again!

I will never forget my mom dragging me, screaming and crying, away from him as he shrieked his frustration of the leash that kept him from following me, she, telling me "that's not Wolfie!".
[like I didn't know him and he didn't know me]

He too had been given away while I was gone.

I have severe 'issues' with 'missing pets' and this is the first time in my adult life that I've truly had one be 'missing'...and I know for sure he was not stolen or given away but my drive to search endlessly is apparently still as strong as ever.

All of the above is what makes me so obsessive about all of my pets.

I worry that if I blink or turn away, they could be "gone".

Parents can deeply scar their kids, believing that they're 'doing them a kindness'.

I cringe when I hear a parent tell a kid their hamster or dog 'went to a beautiful farm in Vermont" instead of telling them the hard but infinitely kinder truth.




I'm a really 'damaged' person, as far as my animals go but I can't go back and avert the damage done to me so I have to deal with it as best I can.

[Salamander Rising]

Most people outside of a forum like this would not be able to sympathize, yet if it was a dog.. (don't get me wrong, love dogs)


I can't imagine what you must be going through That's your family, you're concerned about; completely understandable. Hopefully he's just found a place he really likes and is camping out for a bit, but at least if you're seeing rodents you're seeing signs he has something of a food supply (although concern that he's too "soft" for real-life hunting is legitimate).


I hope he comes home to you soon, hang in there and try not to let the worry drown you. He's going to need you at your A-game after his big adventure.

Along with the mice, there's a rat running in the walls.
According to what I've found on Google, it appears to be a "Cotton rat" which is theoretically an herbivore....but it's big and I dearly hope it never finds Alice, just in case it's not an herbivore.

If Ozzy the 'Bee ran into it, I know he'd do his savage level best to devour it but Alice isn't at all like Ozzy.
He's not much of a 'killer'.
He likes his thawed mice laid quietly in front of him...no zombie dance or other unnecessary movement.

That big rat would scare him to death.

[Salamander Rising]

one of my best friends who was my room mate and co-worker has been missing for a week now. I'm a mess......

omg!

:o

[angllady2]

Goodness! I hope you don't take it personally, but you had awful parents!

How cruel of them to do that to you. No wonder you are a mess now with Alice gone.

And I know exactly how you feel. You can't simply stop worrying, that's impossible. He's your baby for crying out loud. Would they tell a parent who had lost a child to stop worrying ? I think not!

The only comfort I can offer you is, you are not alone in this. I feel for you so much, he might as well be my snake. I spent an hour last night making each one of mine promise me they would never do something like this, I couldn't handle it. And by the way, Yakul my hyper sensitive pied boy, told me to tell you he's sorry and he hopes Alice comes home soon. I upset him so badly telling him your story, he didn't want to eat last night.

So, together we will wait, together we will hope, together we will cry a little now and then, and together we will celebrate like we won the world series when he comes home.

Gale

[WingedWolfPsion]

I'll go a bit fruity on you here, so if this isn't your thing, feel free to disregard... Animals, large and small, mammal or not, all have the ability to sense something beyond the physical sense. Whether it's a sixth sense or something else, they have a way of knowing or acting that is beyond 'logic'. Just like how some dogs find their way home over thousands and thousands of miles. How? Or how stray cats and dogs and birds and everything else will try to flee a city days before a massive earthquake. Just like those animals can show us there's more to them, there's more to your little guy as well. You've had rescues, so you probably know what I'm talking about when I say there's more to them than you can prove with science. People say they lack emotions, but maybe they just aren't listening or as open to it. Who knows...

It's true, sometimes snakes do inexplicable things. I had a garter snake get into the basement, and I wasn't able to catch it (it darted under the washer, and then disappeared). A few days later, as I was sitting on the couch, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye, and looked up. The garter snake had glided up over a box, and was sitting there in plain view, staring at me. It allowed me to pick it up gently with little fuss--I released it outside and snapped a few photos. It was perfectly healthy, and took off quickly once released. I didn't even get musked on that time, lol.

What possessed a wild animal to approach me openly in that fashion? To overcome all of its instincts and allow me to see it, and then pick it up?

It wasn't the first time. An escaped baby mourning gecko approached my husband the same way--it actually climbed onto the arm of the couch where he was resting his elbow!

He will come back when realizes that he needs your help.