Nightscrawlers

Snakes... You can just say that one word and it's a sure bet that at least half of the people within earshot will sprain something jumping and looking around for the dreaded beast.

So we had family staying over a few weeks ago and it was early morning when my beloved mate asked the question "Honey where's the snake?" the snake, a 4+ foot ball python named Stone was not in his cage, and this fact took quite a few minutes to sink into my pre-caffinated brain. I just wanted to share with ya all the joy of calmly walking around a house full of snake-a-phobes and trying to look for an escaped snake with out letting any of them know that there was a snake loose. . When it was at last discovered that the snake WAS out, the pandemonium with intense...just imagine a bunch of half asleep, half naked mostly out of shape middle aged people hopping around in a dead-arse panic, shaking out thier clothing and all talking at once...I know I'm evil, but I actually am sitting here laughing my rump off thinking about it.

The snake actually was curled up on top of a high book case next to his cage asleep under one of my hats.

I started this thread before but it has been a couple of years...so....out with it...alarming tales of near death or animal/reptile/insect scares... I can liven things up with my various bear and skunk encounters...or the time as a pet store worker, I nearly put six baby sugargliders through the laundry.

ROTFLMAO. When I first read that title Panz I have to say my mind was totally elsewhere.

My worst husband statement was probabally "what is that smell?" Now having young children means that can be all sorts of bad. The particular time that I am remembering our son had vomited AND had diarrhea in bed and was sleeping still (in it). GAH!!!

I'll take the snake!

Paws

"LOL!" which all my friends use irl. ;;

I had a little corn snake named Salazar. He was maybe a foot long. Unfortunately, like many baby corn snakes, he simply refused to eat one day and then never ate again. I kind of miss him (though I seem to be better with warm blooded critters).

Before he died though, Salazar escaped and had a 3 day adventure as a free snake cruising around in my shack. I spent a lot of time looking for him, but since I live in such a small space, it's very storage oriented and there's a lot of places a little snake could hide. It was kind of weird to admit to people that there was a loose snake somewhere in my house and I had no idea where it was.

One night though I came home and my cats were right behind the front door totally spazing out. I looked around the door and there was Salazar holding his own against my two totally armed cats. He was striking at them and being a bad ass little snake and my two fat retarded cats, despite having claws and teeth and hunting instincts had no idea what to do about it. It was hilarous.

I caught Salazar and from that day forward he had Merck's Veterinary Manual on top of his cage.

-e

I have to say the two things that always go missing are snakes and hampsters. While I never had snakes, I did have hampsters growing up (now I hold firm to the belief that despite their cute fuzzy appearance hampsters are like one of the meanest pets a person could have). While I was too young to remember one incidence my dad told me of one of the hampters that escaped, ended up in the tub and ate the entire bottom of the shower curtain. Unfortunately for the hampster, shower curtains in the digestive system are not compatible with life.

Hamsters are bad assed for being so small, cute and beady eyed. I knew a guy that was picking up mice for his snake and the petstore threw in a crotchety older hampster cause they couldn't sell him (that's the hard thing with snakes - the whole live/dead prey thing) so he gave his boa this hampster. He came back 1/2 hour later and the hampster was cleaning itsself in the middle of the pen and the snake was cowering in the corner, covered in bites. A thing like that is bound to give a snake a complex.

Paws

I used to let my first hamster out on purpose, hide her up my sleeve them make my parents go look for her. Alice (the hamster) had enough adventures without me though. One time she managed to get out of her cage, climb up on top of the fridge freezer combi, and eat haf of a silk scarf that was my mum's, and a chocolate covered brazil nut - that had foil over it.

When she died, my parents told me she had gone to visit the nice vet. They told me this for three years. I never twigged she was dead until I was six.

I once worked in a pet store, and hamsters are evil!

You know come to think of it a lot of my pets ran away while I was at summer camp.

Ja. My brother had a hermit crab, and when my family went to beach, we left our pets in the care of a friend. THe hermit crab died while we were away, so the friend told me and my parents and then she bought a new hermit crab. She told my brother that the hermit crab had switched shells. He never once wondered why the new hermit crab was purple (excluding the shell) and the one he had before he left for the beach was red. The new and purple hermit crab died a few months later, and THEN he noticed that it was a different color thatn it should be, and THEN we told him that it was really a different crab. We found its body floating in the toilet, for some reason.
Another time my hamster got out, and bit a guest on the big toe. Then it moved on to eat rat poisen and died.