What do you think my chances are?

[Malkingray]

I keep my snakes in one of my spare bedrooms. Door is always latched, all containers not in a rack are clipped shut. There is a door at the bottom of the steps that keep the cats upstairs during the day.

Yesterday, my 3yo Dalmatian with severe seperation anxiety, ripped the door of its hinge, went upstairs and chewed a hole in the door - not big enough for him to get through (unlike the bathroom door!) but plenty large enough for my cats to get in. The cats had a field day and knocked several containers over. All were a little stressed as I went through and cleaned them all up. When I got to the last container - my 04 Amel het Caramel - "Zippo", was missing. One of the end clips had been knocked off and he was able to sqeeze out. :sidestep:

I have traps set up and have temp. screwed a piece of plywood to the door until I can replace it and have locked my cats into their bedroom. But what are my chances that I am going to find this snake alive? :shrugs:
I have pretty much come to terms that the cats most likely got him. The cats were not in the room when I got home and maybe he waited to leave until the chaos stopped before escaping but I don't know.

Anyone have an escaped snake found alive with cats living in the house?

The dog is currently at the boarding kennel until his new anti- anxiety meds take affect. To date he has now destroyed 3 doors, 4 crates, 2 screens, 1 window, the linoleum floor, part of my sofa, part of my fence, several towels, pillows, mail, important papers, DVD's, and mulitple other items, in addition to being a self mutilator and scarring his legs and overdosing on several medications a few weeks ago (one of the drugs he overdosed on was his old anti-anxiety meds). :bang:

If it wasn't for the fact that I am a vet tech and studied dog behavior prior to him being tied to my bumper last year - :twoguns: he'd be a dead dog!

 

[dionythicus]

We use our cats as pointers to find lost snakes. oke: They usually spot the movement and home in on it. We haven't had a cat kill a loose snake yet, but one baby was found with tiny punctures in its tail. That baby is alive and well in its new home.

My hat's off to you for taking on this dog's problems. I hope the new meds
work. I know at some point I'd be asking myself, "Is this animal really living a healthy life?" This is going to sound cruel and heartless, but is it truly beneficial to this animal to allow its mental illness to control its life and yours? You've got a bigger heart, and wallet, than mine, I guess. LOL

Good luck with both!

 

[Taceas]

I have three cats and thankfully most of my escapee's have been pinpointed by the cats. You just have to become very mindful of their strange staring into the basket of magazines on the floor, or under the fridge.

Thankfully my cats keep their distance from all snakes and snake look-alikes, so I've never found one dead or damaged in anyway.

Snakes hide in the most rediculous of places sometimes, you'd be surprised where you'll find them. I've honestly never had any luck with the traps. Just lots of persistence and nights crawling around looking understuff at night with a flashlight. =P


However like Dionythicus, your heart and wallet must be bigger and more patient than mine. Then again I have a very low tolerance for household destruction caused by pets. Must be new house syndrome, I fought to get this house and pets ain't gonna be the ruin of it! I've just finally gotten the cats from picking at the new sofa and chair. It only took squirting their behinds with diluted Windex to get the point across from a stealthy vantage point. Now if I could get them from being lazy, and going down to the basement to do their business on the floor instead of going out to the garage to do it. I hate having to keep the basement closed.

I tend to look at the larger picture when owning a pet that is like that. I personally don't think that's any way for a dog to live, nor a human to have to deal with. I wouldn't want to live like that. Plus I grew up with the farm mentality, if its "not right" and can't manage on a basic level on its own, then it's euthanized for the better.

Although my folks did have a German Shepherd that required human epiliepsy pills. She would function quite well, but she'd have a spell where if she didn't get her meds, she'd just sit there with her eyes rolled back and drool. If she got her meds regularly, all was well and she eventually lived to the ripe old age of 22.

Hopefully the new meds work out for the better. Let us know if your snake turns up.

 

[Malkingray]

:-offtopic When the dog was originally tied to my bumper I tired VERY hard to get him into a rescue but none had openings at the time and since I had him neutered/vaccinated/microchipped they then considered him an owned dog and they refuse to take owner surrendered dogs. I thought by me having him fully vetted at my expense (I told them I'd donate that service in exchange for them taking him in when they had space) I'd have had no problems getting him into rescue! Had I not done anything with him they would have taken him because then he would have been considered a stray! I thought I was saving the rescue money!

If I didn't work for a vet and get a discount on the meds I probably would have euthanized him long ago! He is a very good dog and causes no problems when I am home and up until recently was fairly well controlled with the Elavil when I was at work. The last 6 weeks or so have been bad. It started after I boarded them to go to Maine when we spread my Mom's ashes. From the time he came home he was just different. I know the woman who I board with very well and I am 98% certain he got his meds while there. I used to go hiking 1-2 per week and alternate dogs, but now I am taking him 3-4 times a week and have enrolled him in agility classes so hopefully some mental stimulation will help (he graduated at the top of his obedience class). I can't place him in another home - he is way to bonded to me, I guess I should be flattered!

In the meantime I will let my Maine Coon and Ragdoll out - they are both extremely laid back cats and are "bird" safe (my parrots torment them and they do nothing) so maybe they will help find Zippo. The rest of the cats I will keep locked up as they all love to kill things, esp my DSH and C. Rex! I do hope I can find him, he is a beautiful snake and very easy to handle. I will be very upset if I find he didn't survive. Maybe if I don't find him and he is alive he could get into the walls/ceiling and take care of the mouse problem!

 

[Taceas]

I've been there before. I don't know how many stray cats and dogs I've rescued from bad conditions to take them to the vet to get them vaccinated and spayed/neutered and then when I wanted to put them with a shelter, they wanted to charge me $30 as an 'owner turn in' because I had all of the work done on them. I thought I was doing them a favor!

Most of the animals they adopt out unaltered are never altered, because they give certificates to have it done for free. Most people don't care and never have it done. My dog is case in point. Adopted out twice, came back with a litter twice. She has separation anxiety whenever we clean around her carrier or when we pack up the car for a trip, she's afraid we're never going to come back. So she sits there with this worried look on her face like we're leaving her like the other people did. But once you mess with her carrier that she sleeps in, its traumatizing to her and it takes her a good week of being extra clingy to realize you didn't leave.

Best of luck to your dog, hopefully it gets the relief it needs.

And your cats sound like mine. I have one who I suspect is partially Maine Coon, and she just lays there on her back while our Quaker comes up and yanks hair out to play with. While I'm sure they'd like to kill the bird sometimes, most times she just chases them around with an open beak.

 

[Roy Munson]

I'll probably put the whammy on myself by writing it, but I've never had a corn escape. My one and only snake escape was about thirteen years ago, when my rosy boa got out. I found him in back of the cat's litter box! The cat I had at the time would have liked nothing better than to tear him apart, but somehow the rosy eluded him. The rosy is still around, but that cat died a long time ago.

 

[Malkingray]

All of my cats are rescued - which suprises many since a lot are purebred - the only cat I paid for was the Ragdoll, $50 at the local shelter. She has a $3000 birth defect - her liver is adhered to her heart. My Cornish Rex, Siamese and 2 DSH have the biggest torment-little-creatures-attitude I have ever met! I keep praying that they didn't get to Zippo.

As far as rescuing animals in the future, no more 2nd hand dogs! In the last 15+ years the 4 dogs that I have raised from puppies (3 Dalmatians and a Rottweiler) have been the absolute best dogs I have ever owned! I do love my rescues but it has taken its toll - lost a 3yr old male to SEVERE epilepsy, my 14 year old Dal (had her 2yrs and 1 wk to the day of her death) to a spinal cord tumor, and lost my 3yr old Shetland Sheepdog/Labrador mix to EXTREME fear aggression. My 7 yr old Dal has been pretty good minus a few medical issues. Sevy is my 5th and last rescue. 1 out of 5 odds aren't good enough for me! I simply can't handle the heatbreak that I go through. I have fostered many dogs too and that has been hardly rewarding. It takes SO much work and than it seems that something happens and their gone.

I live in a 100 year old house that is in need of some much over due remodeling. So maybe when I can stop the corn addiction, or at least slow it down a little over winter, I can get some small projects done.

I put Madison and Abbie in the snake room and so far both have decieded it is nap time, so I am still looking!

 

[eddie1976]

It seems to me that my corns all always found by the cats. But fortunately two of my three cats are kind of wimpy. They were both adopted former lab cats from Cornell Vet School when their experiments were finished. Those two have been bred to just be very friendly chill cats.
The third one was a stray Hit BY Car that had to have his jaw reconstructed by my wife, and ended up in my house somehow. H is the snake finder. So far the last three escapees were found by him, all three hanging from his jaws like spaghetti. Only one was the worse for wear.

 

[Sisuitl]

My crimson male escaped into a room with a mother cat and 5 insane kittens. I searched forever (3 weeks every day! urg!) and couldn't find him. One day when I was cleaning out the litter box, I lifted it and he was curled up safe and sound underneath it. These are cats that do love to eat and mangle animals too, so there is hope. To this day I have no idea where he hid, probably went into the crack under the drywall and laughed at me from the insulation while I was moving furniture and boxes everywhere.

 

[Malkingray]

Well no Zippo yet - but I wasn't really expecting to find him this quickly. According to the threads I have read they can be gone quite awhile before turning up. At least I have hope that the cats may not have done him in. Madison and Abbie are thrilled to be allowed in the "forbidden" room and hopefully they will lead me to him. If not I may try Minnie, my Cornish Rex. With those bat ears of hers hopefully she can find him and I can get to him before she does. Thanks to the replies - I am glad to know that other snakes have been found by cats and lived to tell about it.

 

[Misss_misssy]

THat dog is tooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Gallagher]

We have 6!!!

We have 6 cats and have had at least a few snakes escape... [seems to happen to everyone lol] All of them have been found safe and sound except when we went on vacation and someone was feeding the cats we came home to a hatchling that had escaped and the cars had killed him. How old is the missing snake? We have also had our cats a few times show us were the snake is. Victoria got lose here recently and my cat was sticking her head under the bed then pulling it quickly out again and doing this over and over... lifted the bed to our snake... they really are good at finding them. Watch your cats really close for irregular behavor.

 

[dionythicus]

My biggest female corn got out once and I came home to find said snake coiled in the corner with a ring of cats around her. They were daring each other to get closer.

We've rescued several dogs and cats. Our two dogs now are both rescues. One is a bit of a nervous mental case, she was obviously abused once. You just have let her think that something is her idea, you can't make her do something, like go outside to pee. She'll be all ready to go out, get to the door and stop with this worried look on her face. She'll hold it all day until she thinks its ok to go outside. Our other dog is Omega dog. He's a monkey-see-monkey-do animal, so he's picked up on some of the other dog's wierd habits. Gee, thanks. He's been on anti-siezure meds for a year and is doing fine.

I don't think we'll have any dogs after these two are gone. Snakes and cats. That's it.

 

[Roy Munson]

I am glad to know that other snakes have been found by cats and lived to tell about it.

I don't know, no matter how hard I press the issue, my rosy won't talk about it. :santa:

 

[Malkingray]

Guess I should have rephrased that!

Today is day 3 and Zippo is still MIA. I invited Minnie and Melody in to help look around, but like Madison and Abbie they took naps instead! Cats are so helpful! I will continue the daily "cat-watch" and tomarrow plan on moving the racks and looking through a few boxes stored in there.

 

[Malkingray]

Well I know Zippo is alive - found a perfectly shed skin in front of one of the racks when I got home from work today. I am due to feed them all tomarrow so I will see if I can lure him out with a fuzzy.
At least those useless cats of mine didn't get him!

 

[dionythicus]

He's probably not too far away then. I hope you find him soon.