Man the craziest thing happened. A couple weeks ago, I woke up one morning and noticed a tub wide open. A male speckled king 66% het whitewall was gone! I was up late doing snake chores the night before and must have done something stupid when I was getting tired. A snake can push on the Vision V35 tubs a little bit, but like I said, this one was wide open, so I'm pretty sure it was human error.
I tore the house apart. No sign of him at all. I kept looking. Nothing. Weeks went by. I was supposed to go out of town for New Years. Had a reservation for my dog at the pet resort and everything. Then when that Nigerian tried to blow up a plane and the TSA went all psycho, I had second thoughts. Later that day America West called and said they were backed up from the bad weather back East and my flight out was canceled. I could fly out of another airport to make my connector, or get a full refund.
So the morning I was supposed to fly out, there was just no way. Too many snake chores still left undone, too hectic, etc... I said, "Well, I'd happily give up the vacation for the return of my speckled king", like that was gonna happen. I headed home and called the airline for my refund. A short while after I got off the phone with them, there's a knock on my door... twice. My neighbor Bob says "Hey, Monty found this snake down here, it has a green belly". I said "Oh, bummer, my snake has a yellow belly". He says "You're missing a snake?". I said "Yeah".
So we walk down the street to the field next to my house and there, all rolled up like a ball python is my speckled king! He was alive. Looked like he was attacked by an animal though. There was a half inch area where his skin was torn back and looked like leather underneath, and a few other scrapes. Plus it was literally freezing the night before and had been pretty cold for the last several weeks. I live at +3,000' in the mountains. So the snake was pretty shocked.
I brought him home, sprayed him with Herptile RX and put him in a warm tub. He had a nice long drink of water and then proceeded to relax in various odd positions. I was worried that he had been clipped by a car or internally damaged from the animal attack. But after a few days rest, his energy level is much better and he's eaten a couple peach fuzzies. I'm amazed at what a tough little bastard he is! Sorry I don't have any pics, but my digital camera isn't working. I think it's the SD card. I'd love a new one anyway.
