Monday, February 13, 2012

Houdini... Freaking me out

So once upon a time, there was a Queenbee female that I had acquired over this past season that I had put in the smallest tubs.

She was good there for a long time, without any ill effects and without any issues. After coming to me, she ate, she drank, she had no problems with anything.

Over the course of the month or two that I had her, I kept checking in to make sure she was good, to make sure she was still thriving like the others.

No problem.

And then, one day (aka Friday), the tub she was in was open.

Now, its been a crazy week (as you could see from the lack of blogging over the last few days), and I could not figure out if it was me being absent minded and left the tub open, which is VERY unlikely, because I have dealt with MANY tub things over the years, and my habits of leaving things closed and double checked is ingrained into my brain...

OR...

The dreaded thought..

She managed to get out.

.....

NO WAY... This snake didn't try and get out before, and I had had her in that tub for a while...

So after a slight surprise and a tiny bit of dismay for having to crawl all over the room looking for her, I did.

Fifteen minutes later, I found her across the second level of a set of vision racks, near the heat cord.

Okay, little miss Houdini, let's put you back in the tub.

I triple checked that I put that snake back in the right tub, with the tub closed.

Crisis averted!!!


Saturday rolled on by, and Sunday is the super cleaning day of the week!

So I go in, sleeves rolled up, ready to roll.

I turn to look at the baby rack and WHAT???????????????

This is what I see:


I am annoyed, a bit freaked out, and more than anything fed up.

HOW THE HECK DID THIS SNAKE DO THIS??

I know now that it was NOT me last time, that this freaking snake has found a way to get out of the smallish tub by doing some type of contortion act to push it open. She was larger than necessary for the tub, but I tend to give the newer animals smaller tubs to make sure they eat well first.

This girl is getting a bigger tub as soon as I find her scrawny ass.

So here I go again..

I take tubs out, I use a flashlight, I crawl on the floor, I stand on my step-stool.
I move racks around, I move things around.
I check the closet, I check the tops of racks, I check the bottom of racks.

Around thirty minutes later, I find her.



She is wedged between the wall and the tub of the TOP tub of one of my Boaphile racks, clear across the other side of the room, and on the top.

Did I mention the TOP? This rack has ten 32 qt tubs in it, and somehow she manages to get from the floor to the TOP tub. We are talking like 6 feet off of the floor.

How the heck these critters do this is absolutely beyond me.

All I know is in my several experiences looking for lost snakes, they tend to end up in the weirdest places.

So learn from me, my friends. When in doubt, look in the weirdest places ever! You will probably find them there.

Her name is officially Houdini now. And she is in the Vision baby tub rack with plenty of space, and no way to get out!

Have a great day, my friends!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is a great example of "intelligence" that snakes and some reptiles have. they remember and learn!

sgath92 said...

Would be interesting to hide a camera in view of the tub to see how she's getting out of it.