Essscape Artist

Meet Chesster:

He's the newest member of our family. We found him in the middle of the road last Saturday evening while driving around in Washington Fields. The original plan was to just move him off of the road, but somehow Jefferson sweet-talked his way into keeping the snake on a trial basis.

We found a large rubber tote to keep him in at home, and picked up a few supplies at the pet store on Monday. Things were going pretty well at this point, and it looked like Chesster was here to stay.

That all changed Monday night.

Jefferson had been keeping the snake downstairs in our family room, and needed a way to keep the cage above 80 degrees. He came up with a good plan - he cut a small hole in the lid, underneath a hatch door. He covered the opening with packaging tape, then positioned a small lamp to shine in the hole. It had worked well the night before, with Jefferson turning out the lamp when he went to bed. As I prepared to go to bed on Monday, I decided to check if he'd remembered to turn off the snake's lamp. I leaned over the railing and realized that the light had indeed been left on. As I straightened up, something on the stairs caught my eye.

It was our 3.5 foot king snake, resting on a step about halfway up the staircase.

Talk about a shock! It's a good thing I'm not a screamer, or the whole house would have awakened right then. I ran into our bedroom to grab DEl, only to find he'd just gotten into the bathtub. When I breathlessly told him about finding the snake on the stairs, he said,

"Hon, I just got into the bathtub....what do you want me to do about it?"

I guess I didn't play up the damsel in distress quite well enough. I decided that there was no harm in having the snake on the stairs while my husband finished his bath; we could catch it together when he was done.

It was a great plan except for one thing - when I walked back to the stairs, the snake was gone.

At first, I thought that perhaps I had just imagined seeing the snake the first time as it was rather dark in the hallway. This hope was proved wrong as I saw the snake again, this time slithering towards the open door to Krissia's bedroom. She was gone, but I knew we'd have a hard time finding Chesster if he got loose in there.

So I put on my big girl pants and caught the snake. By myself.

While putting the snake back into its cage, I saw that it had worked the tape loose in one corner, which allowed it to slither away. Determined to prevent this from happening again, I moved the lamp and shut the hatch - covering the hole completely. I wasn't worried about lack of air getting into the cage, as we had punched several small holes in the top. I went back upstairs, satisfied with my solution.

I began reading a book; about 10 minutes into it, I decided to check on Chesster. He was directly under the hatch, trying to peel the tape away with his head. 'Smart snake,' I thought as I turned out the light and went upstairs again. I read for a few more minutes before deciding to prepare for bed. As I was brushing my teeth, I decided it wouldn't hurt to check on the snake one last time.

When I turned on the light, it revealed an empty cage. Upon closer examination, I could see that the hatch had been pushed ajar and Chesster was on the loose again.

At that point, I was thinking we should have named that snake "Houdini."

There was no way I was doing this on my own this time around. I ran upstairs to grab DEl, then together we woke up Jefferson. We desperately hoped that the snake was too big to fit under the storage room door, as we have boxes of Christmas decorations that it could lose itself indefinitely in. Luckily, the snake hadn't wandered too far; the boys found it in the corner of the family room, burrowing under some blankets. After depositing Chesster inside his house YET AGAIN, I decided the best place for it would be outside. We set the cage on the basement stairs, with a heavy book over the hatch, and hoped it would be there in the morning. Well, at least Jefferson was hoping it would still be there.

So far, Chester has remained in his home, although we've found a permanent place in the garage for him to stay. Now that the threat of having a snake running loose in our house has subsided, I've actually quite enjoyed having him around - I didn't realize that snakes were so fascinating to watch. We haven't been able to get the snake to eat yet - we've tried frozen mice twice (yes, I know it sounds gross) without much luck. We're going to try a live mouse tomorrow; if that doesn't work, we'll have to release the snake back into the wild. Jefferson will be sad.

And surprisingly ...so will I.