Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What a weekend it has been for me!!

It was one of those saturday mornings that I had to clean up all of my honduran milksnake cages and feeding some of them in the process. When I was done with all these right around lunch time, I inadvertently did not secure one of the cages properly and went up to the kitchen to get some lunch. After lunch, I took a nap for about couple of hours and then went back to the garage where I house all my hondos. I noticed that the lid was slightly open and much to my horror, my ghost male that will be ready to breed next season is gone. I basically searched the garage upside down, in and out, nowhere to be found. I remember that the garage sliding door was open during the cleaning process because the sliding door opens up into my garden as i was using the garden hose to clean up some the water bowls. So, i just basically concluded that the snake is either in one of those small cement cracks in the garage that God knows where it leads to, or outside the garden and got eaten by a red tail hawk (there is a resident red tail hawk that perches on my huge tree every now and then). Anyhow, it was almost 4 in the afternoon and by then I concluded that there's no ghost honduran on sight.

So, I started putting away his cage and my dog came down from upstairs to, I guess look for me. He started watching me with a concerned look on his face watching at my distraught face. I started talking to my dog, with some self-deprecation remarks of how stupid I was for not being careful. My dog (a full bred labrador retriever) started sniffing the cage, the snake's hiding place, and the water bowl. I kid you not... it was so strange when I started saying to my dog that I have looked everywhere and maybe he can find him... so I said to him "Go find him, go on...". So he started sniffing the cement floor, and then he went out to the garden, continued sniffing for a couple of minutes more. He then started barking at some pile of firewood stored at the left side of the garden just outside the garage sliding door. I started pulling out the firewood and at the bottom was the ghost honduran!!! I still cannot believe it. I am still shaking my head in utter disbelief even as I am typing this... but I just wanted to share this with you all.

Thanks for reading and below is a pic of the ghost that was missing and yet found. He's now 4 feet long...

Have a wonderful day !

Ray

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RAY

wow ray, I was starting to get worried when you mention he escape.
congrats man and be more careful next time, we need him in the future.. lol

Nevo

You bet I will be extemely careful next time.
Thanks again Nevo.
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RAY

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Thanks Shannon. He had a really great dinner that night for sure...with desserts called "Frosty Paws" (ice cream for dogs...lol).
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RAY

It's far from a ghost honduran but you can relate.
While feeding all my hatchlings one day I failed to secure the top of the container one of my okeetee corn hatchlings were in.
Later that evening while I was watching TV I saw my longhaired dachshund go behind the TV stand. I think he was following his nose which he lives by. He then caught my attention because he ran in reverse from behind the TV real fast with his ears perked up looking the way he just came from. He then ran back behind the TV only to come running back out in reverse a couple seconds later. I knew then something was going on so I got up and looked. There was one of the little okeetee hatchlings rared back with about half of it's body up in the striking position.
Each time my dog was going behind the TV he was striking at him and that's why he was running back out in reverse. It was funny. I bet I would have never found it if Max didn't. Randy W.

That's hilarious Randy, especially with a dachshund with those short legs going back and forth. I'd be laughing my head off if I saw that myself !

Thanks for sharing.

Ray
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RAY

What a great story. I have a friend who is training his black Lab to hunt snakes. We live in Montana and are always on the look for Multistratas. He won't tell his bird hunting buddies for fear they will not hunt with him any more.

On another note Ray. That hypo tri-color of yours is out of this world gorgeous. Do you have any neonates from her? Or if you are going to try to get babies could I get on a list for some? The hypos that is.
Dell Despain

Thanks Dell. If you can do me a favor and email me directly as "snakes_sfguy@yahoo.com" , that would be great. She'll be breeding the first time next spring and is definitely big enough to breed but I am planning to mate her with the ghost that almost escaped. But if I can find a real nice tricolor hypo male that can match her great looks, I'll for sure consider it....but yeah, email me so I can get your email address directly as well.

Thanks,

Ray
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RAY

Great story Ray. One would think dogs totaly understand what we say to them! Truly man's best friend

Thanks for sharing

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Marc Bouchard
Selectively Bred Serpents
www.selectively-bred-serpents.ca

Yup, absolutely certain that some dogs understand us. I am sooo convinced with my dog now. Sometimes, he turns his head like clock (from 12 o'clock to 3 0'clock) as if trying to understand me... and now I know that it is so....

Also, did you get my email I sent like last week, i think?

Thanks Marc,
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RAY

Amazing story and I'm glad to hear you found it. On the otherhand I am frustrated at not thinking to use a dog! One of my tangerine breeders got lost very very last september...I was very happy to find her EIGHT MONTHS later... Mabey I'll get a dog so I don't have to g-clip and bunjee chord every tank shut! Great sotry!
-Sean

Yeah, having a dog is truly a blessing. I take him pretty much everywhere I go outdoorsy and I let him play with a hondo or two, letting him get familiarized with it so he won't kill a snake when he sees one when I go hiking.

But I'm also glad you found yours without the aid of a dog. I think I'll be bummed out for 8 months if I were in your shoes...but all is well that ends well.

Thanks,
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RAY

Ray, is that ghost by chance an '04 hatch from Kevin Hanley's group? Just wondering because I have one that looks alot like him with that same single aberrant spot as yours. Mine is an '04 hatch whose daddy was M94, one of Keven's male ghost breeders. I'm thinking I have a brother or step-brother to your ghost there.
Later, Dale.

Hi Dale,

My male ghost actually came from Mike Alvarez and was produced in 2004. However, I have a female ghost, also produced in 2004 that came from Mike Hanley and the father of my female ghost is indeed M94. I have not posted her pics at all in the forum but her head marking is very similar to M94 with a little iddy-bitty "spade" marking on her head. My 2 ghosts are unrelated and hopefully will successfully breed this coming spring-summer-fall.

Thanks for asking.

Take care...
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RAY