Curiouser and Curiouser

I can't keep walking by Bowie's tank and bursting into tears. I have to have something living in there, and soon.

I have pretty much narrowed it down to two species: the Spotted Python and garter snakes. Here's a helpful table. Price is very much not an issue.

Point	Pythons	Garters
Size	100-140cm	60-160cm, depending on subspecies
Can live in pairs?	Yes	Yes
Color	Brown spots with iridescent coat	Many, though I'm mostly looking at blue and possibly orange. They're all vivid.
Availability	Slightly rare in US	Very common to very rare, depending on subspecies
Taming	Very easy	Mild
Activity	Low	High
Maintenance	Low	Slightly higher
Diet	Mice only	Mice, minnows

Thoughts? Anything else I should add up there?

I went to check on Bowie in his new enclosure today, and found it empty. He probably nosed the flimsy screen up with his face and slithered out a corner. I have tank clips, but his other screen was so reinforced that I'd never had to use them.

I panicked and ran around the house with a flashlight, cleaning out piles of books as I went, but to no avail. He's nowhere to be found. So I cried for a good long while, interspersed with bouts of searching, and set some traps.

TRAP #1: Today is feeding day. I know that he's hungry. So I'm setting an empty soda bottle on the floor, and letting a mouse defrost in it. When he comes in and eats the mouse, he'll be too fat to fit back out and I can easily get him out.

TRAP #2: I drew lines of salt on the floor across the two major door frames. If he moves from one room to another, we'll know.

So there you have it. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, as the recovery rate of wayward colubrids (especially his size) isn't great, and there's a very real chance I'll never see my baby again. And even if I did find him, the floor is dusty, and he may have a respiratory infection - or worse, a parasite from eating a house mouse - that may not be treatable.

It says something about elenuial that he's letting me leave a dead mouse on the floor in the middle of the apartment. We're turning a fan in regards to the smell, but still.

I think that if I don't get him back in the next few days, I'll be heartbroken.

Bowie is sleeping in my bathrobe pocket.

I always tell you guys how cute this is, but I happened to have my camera nearby today.

Do not underestimate my snake's love for warm, fluffy places to curl up and sleep in.

So, as I was digging through stuff on my shelves today, I found this weird studded martini glass. And, after hearing someone remark on how much Bowie (a yearling now!) has grown last night, my first thought was "Huh. Wonder if he'll fit."

Well, not only did he fit, but he found it nice and snug (and in sunlight) and was very loath to give up his death-grip on the stem. =D And he'd just come out of a shed! So I took advantage of the photo-op and took a few shots on an idea I'd had for a while.

I only put three up to save everyone's f-lists.

( Loving the black and white )

And just for comparison, here are two side-by-side of Bowie, one from four months ago and the other from now:
( In relation to my thumb, apparently? )

I know that he'll only be about 3.5' since he's a boy, but I still can't wait until he's big. =) He's gotten so handsome.

-H

HOLY CRAP MY SNAKE IS YAWNING*.



THAT IS SO ADORABLE AND FIERCE AT THE SAME TIME.

-H

*okay, so not so much yawning as reconfiguring his jaw. but still.

I love this comic.



Also, Bowie chowed down on his mouse pretty quickly today. It's gotten to the point where after he eats, he'll let me pick him up to put him back in the tank (as opposed to flip out and threaten to regurgitate) and slither off to rest his belly on his heating pad. So he burrows into the aspen under his log, with his stomach on the warm glass, stretches out, and gives off this look of "bluuuuuuuuurrrrrgghhh... ... fat snake." It's very cute, and oddly human.

Now, whenever we see him right after eating, (lj user=elenuial> and I call him "fat snake."

I hope we aren't giving him a complex.

-H

Why my life is made of awesome right now:

- Bowie! He had a big day yesterday. He had a good shed for once (first time all in one piece! I'm so proud!) and was back in a good mood. We went to PetS* in the morning to get a cat crate for my parents and a heat mat plus food for Bowie (I found surgical tongs! Score!). They were out of anything smaller than medium frozen mice, which was upsetting, but I bit my pride down and went to Petc* instead. While there, I was happy to find that their brand of frozen rodents came in individual packs, something I'd been looking for. So I got my baby a 3-pack of Pinkies and a single Fuzzy. People fawned all over him, and he was very well-behaved! I got to educate some kids, talk to some other herpers (a bunch of redtail owners), and he got to nose around my shirt and embarrass me. He slept most of the time while driving and at Sutman's with the three of us watching TV, but sprang back up when I put him in his feeding tank and prepared his first Fuzzy ever.
He ate the entire thing like a champ.
So now instead of three pinkies he gets a fuzzy every week. For reference, the former is like eating a burger whole. The latter is like eating the waitress.
It's the first time he's ever had to stretch his jaw so wide - it took him a good few minutes to swallow the whole thing and ended up with the tail sticking out of his mouth like spaghetti. It was adorable! He was in a food coma until this morning, the lazy little git, but is now perky and satisfied.
<3 my baby.

- The love of my life is coming home soon!

- Gogol Bordello in concert was amazing.

- Rocky Horror tonight!

- Bower Bird auditions are next week! Holy shit, a play I wrote is a feature show. Holy shit.

- Work, pt 1! Although passive-aggressively pushing me into a position I didn't want, said position isn't quite as bad as I thought. And despite them wanting me to do amounts of work that are, frankly, ridiculous in the time they schedule me, the dogs in my classes are more than making up for it. I have a couple of dogs who were abused-turned-rescued, and I'm helping them and their new owners acclimate. I have a bunch of dogs I'm training to be companion/service/therapy dogs, and some are just adorably goofy puppies that I get to watch grow up. I've also started a new thing that my students are happy about, which is helping them set up play dates with dogs from other classes (dogs get to play with other dogs where both sets of owners know that each dog is healthy, trained, and controlled). I also had my first graduation today~! Pictures later.

- Work, pt 2! I asked, rather short notice, for a few days off this coming week so that I could go ahead to Canada with Sutman and Carmen. Manager K* hemmed and hawed and said, essentially, no. We had a bunch of people out, and a few quit/let go. I was needed. I was disappointed, but understanding. I check the schedule today and - lo and behold - I work until 2pm Wednesday and then not again until class on Saturday morning! Canada is a go, and I'm SO baking Manager K* cookies.

On the other hand, I feel bad that every morning, after my car has been in the driveway overnight, there's a gorgeous spiderweb sitting between the bushes and my driver's side door handle. I relocate my end to another leaf on the bush, but darned if that spider doesn't move it back every damn time.

Off to go sing in the shower.

-H