Lost and found...

Well Rosie (beagle mix) found the missing King that has shown traces and an quick glimpse here and there over the past few months.

I'll post a few pics after I find my camera cord.

Anybody else have stories of one that disappear for any prolonged period of time to be found later?

Not a kingsnake, but a boa constrictor. She was about 5 months old when she escape, she was gone for two months. I knew she would show up sooner or later. One morning I was cleaning the cats litter box which is on the floor next to the microwave stand that had a cage with two jumbo rats in it. My wife came in the room and said "there is a snake on top of the rat cage!" I stood up and sure enough, she was on top of the rat cage looking down on two jumbo rats. I laughed so hard because she was looking in and probably was thinking those two rats would be the best meal she will have ever eaten, yet her little body could just fit a large size mouse.

Turned out she was pretty upset for being found, she would not let me hold her for about 3 weeks after being caged back up.

Made a mistake once of feeding my calking in a cardboard box with books on top in the laundry room. Big mistake, went to check on him later and he was gone. After checking under washing machines, I knew the calking was in a space between the wall and the cabinets. He was the first snake I ever had and was with us for a long time. My daughter who was 3 or 4 yrs old at the time cried over his absence, because she liked to hold him the most out of the snakes. I thought he would come out on his own and sealed up the room. At 5 weeks I put of some live mice on the floor and found him trying to get at the mice. Junkyard your right around snakes not happy being caught, this calking musked me for the first time since he was a hatchling like 8 years ago and had always been puppy dog tame.

They seem to become feral after being free for a very short time. This little stinker musked more than I thought possible from a larger snake.

Not real long term, about a week. I had a hatchling Grey band get loose, couldn't find it. About a week later we had a big family gathering at the house, so my kids were sleeping on my bed, I got the floor. I'm sleeping pretty good and "something" wakes me up. After shaking the "sleep" off, I realized what woke me up was the feeling of the little guy crawling on the palm of my hand and through my fingers. Snatched him up and took him back to his room.

of the wayward one. A little dirty but cleaned up well.

Back in the fall of 1969, maybe 1970, I took a Rough Scaled Sand Boa to an Orange County Herp meeting in So. Cal. to sell. She didn't sell so we had her with us when we stopped to see another herper. She was in a grocery sack with the top folded tightly down when I left her in the car. When, after a few minutes, we came back the bag was completely open and the snake gone. (Yeah, I know, it was a very stupid move on my part). We tore the car apart looking but no luck. We figured somebody got her. In January we had the transmission rebuilt so the car was in the shop for a few days. In April, on a moonless night, we went road hunting in the desert. Right after bagging our fourth or fifth snake, we were driving up the road when I felt something slither over my ankle. I was more than a little uptight as I stopped the car as we had a couple of Rattlers in the car. I put my feet up on the dash and had my bud shine a light on the floor and there was my lost Sand Boa!!!! Six months in the car, through a transmission change and she looked just a little thin. We bagged her, caught a dozen more snakes and headed home. At home I put her in a 15 gal aquarium with sand (back then we thought shavings were bad!) and a water dish. After a prolonged drink she disappeared into the sand. The next day she ate a full grown mouse and over the weeks to come she added back lost weight. This story may sound familiar--my friend Dick Stratton included it in his small TFH book: Beginning With Snakes. Before my marriage my last name was simply Cooney and that's the name he gives in the book. That incident taught me two unforgettable lessons: 1) Don't be so stupid transporting snakes, and 2) the critters are often more resilient than we give them credit.

Pat Glazener-Cooney