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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by n/a[/i] [br]Right at the moment I hate, I really hate, traditional viv design, with those sliding glass windows. I've never been able to get to grips with metal locks, so I use those rubber wedges, and sometimes sellotape too. The trouble with wedges is, as you push the wedge home it can sometimes slide the inner glass panel ajar. I'm obsessively vigilant about this, but still I've had three escapes now, so obviously not quite vigilant enough. The first was a year ago when I noticed Shiloh, then a hatchling, climbing on her window tracking. So? Ah, but she was on the OUTSIDE![:0] The damn window was open a crack - Shiloh had found it and gone walkies by herself, and now the sensible little thing was trying to get back into her nice warm viv. Phew ...lucky escape! The second was Shahi's famous escapade last Halloween, when I woke up and thought he was a ghost. Now I'm not sure if this was entirely my fault, as those door wedges will yield with a hard push and he was desperate to get to Surahi. When I'd warmed him in bed and put him back in the viv, I taped up his doors as a precaution, fortunately, as he was straight back at them, trying them with his nose. Last night I noticed Sulah had produced a magnificent mess and wee, so of course I cleaned up. Madam was perched, as always. She never leaves that branch. On my first attempt at armchair walkies with her she clung so tightly to it that I had to give up. Her viv doors are wedged and taped as Molly the new cat spends a lot of time in that room. This morning at 6, the usual routine. Cats are restless, I stagger out of bed and go into the back bedroom to give them a meal of wet food (biscuits are always on tap.) I say good morning to Sulah, whose viv is in there, and go back to bed. No Sulah. Then I saw. That dratted inner door was about a centimetre ajar. I hadn't checked it, as it had been taped, but somehow the tape had stretched or unpeeled or ...well, whatever it had done, the door was open. And Sulah had got out. Of all the rooms for a snake to escape into, that room's the worst. Countless crannies, bookcases and heavy furniture to hide behind or under, gaps in the floorboards ...I checked and rechecked her viv first of all, and then the surrounding area - desk drawers, piled rubs, back of the freezer where it's warm. I was at it for an hour. Nothing. It's an appalling feeling, totally devastating, when a snake goes missing, and can be just anywhere. Anywhere in the house for that matter. The door is open - she could have gone anywhere she wanted. And I'd been asleep and unaware ... I wasn't too worried about the cats for the present. Wherever Sulah was, she would be somewhere obscure, curled up, asleep. She wouldn't come out in the daytime. But she would be cold, though thankfully not as cold as she might have been in winter. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that she'd gone down a crack in the floorboards and fallen asleep. As long as she didn't get too cold, she would come out at night to look for food. Her appetite is huge and it was nearly her feeding day. She'd be hungry. If there was no sign of her by nightfall then it would be a good idea to put the spare viv on the floor with a heatmat, water, and a mouse in it, doors partially open so that she could get in, and hopefully, full and warm, stay in there. I could shut the cats downstairs, or stay up and watch for her ... Back to the search. Everywhere. Before I had to face unpacking those dratted bookcases and moving them. Presently I realised I hadn't checked the deep file drawer of the desk, but she wouldn't be in there, surely. Just files of stuff, boxes of disks, and a semi-flattened cardboard box that had held a fishtank heater and which I'd kept as it had the instructions for the heater printed on it. I picked it up. There was something in it. I dared not hope. It would be some packaging or something. Not Sulah. I was being totally silly to hope. I peered inside ...and there she was! 'You horrible snake!' No, she was a beautiful snake - the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I couldn't believe she was in there! I fished her out of the box and put her back in her warm viv, on her branch. I swear she gave me a rather shamefaced, but smug glance. So there she is, doors freshly taped, safe and warm again, and the relief is incredible! I feel very conscience-stricken for that stupid mistake in not checking her viv doors last night ...but oh boy, I do wish I was a millionaire who could afford those deluxe US vivs with hinged perspex doors that close securely, or that there was an easily fixable, immovable lock available for those dratted sliding glass viv doors ...[}:)] Glad, so glad she's back though![:D] [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.