Houseguest

Oi! Blogger!

I tried posting a few days ago, but Blogger was down. It's been up since then, but I've been busy making cards for my Etsy shop (link to the left!) and scrapbooking my recent Epic Week.

But this morning, I certainly have something to blog about. I had an overnight guest, you see. Never let it be said that I never bring cute boys home.

This is Panther, and alas, he's destined to be a one-night stand.

The story of how I ended up with a gorgeous black cat named Panther in my bathroom for a night is actually quite interesting.

This weekend, the Stockton PetCo is having a big adoption event, and for the occasion, they invited a reptile education group to set up a few of its residents in the store--they're not up for adoption, they're just there to educate the public why alligators (yes, alligators) don't make great pets, and how you need to really know what you're in for when you bring home that cute Burmese Python. You know, stuff, we all think about, all the time.

Let's just say that right now I'm very thankful I'm a cat person. Yes, I have some cat barf to clean off my bed this morning. Small price to pay.

Anyway, it was actually quite an interesting exhibit, and the alligator--yes, again, I said "alligator"--was quite calm getting her picture taken with people. But there was one teensy little problem, you see.

The group had set up their exotic creatures on Friday night before closing, and left them in the store with their aquariums and hot lamps overnight. When they arrived at the store on Saturday morning, they discovered that one of their six-foot pythons was...not...in...his...(oh, shit)...aquarium.

And he or she remained missing all day.

(For blogging purposes I've decided to christen this python Monty--get it? See what I did, there?)

So the kids who work at PetCo spent their day walking around with flashlights, not telling customers about the missing reptile and trying to stay calm. I was there all day to help out with AFC's big adoption day--Marian had pulled Dog Duty (we never have dogs there on adoption day, but this is a special weekend) and Diane and I were in charge of cats. They (wisely) didn't tell me about Monty until closer to the end of the day, after hearing me in the morning get a little squirmy about the fact that there were lots and lots of enormous pythons and king snakes and boa constrictors and even one very large, very disconcerting anaconda in the store. I am definitely not on the list of people who are perfectly at ease around snakes.

Or, as I said to the reptile people, "I don't exactly speak Parseltongue."

Anyway, when I left a little before 5:00, the search for Monty had been suspended. Turns out he's the kind of python who can climb, so they figure he'd be up high with the extra dog kennels and cat trees on the top shelves. But still, Marian, wanting to be on the safe side, decided that our PetCo residents couldn't stay the night in their cages as they usually would. A snake could get in our cat cages.

One reptile guy, hearing our plan to clear out the five cats for the night said, "Oh, he won't eat a cat."

Marian calmly replied, "Yes, but he'd certainly scare them."

Diane added, "And who's to say the cat wouldn't eat the snake?"

One point for Diane.


Marian and Diane were planning how to split the cats between the two of them for the night--the cats have various foster homes, but it would have been too much trouble to get all the different foster parents out to pick them up for one night. I volunteered my bathroom for the night, so they sent Panther home with me. He's about a year old, all black with not one discernible trace of white or gray, and he's a sweetheart.

I'll leave in a few minutes to take him back to PetCo, and I hope to hear that Monty has been found and returned to his aquarium (and, you know, that the plastic door he got out of has been nailed shut).

In the mean time, here are some pictures.

UPDATE: I returned Panther safely to PetCo. Diane was there, cleaning cages in preparation for another adoption day. She informed me that the python had been found last night. So all's well that ends well! I went back to see him for myself and found out his name is Buster, and that he was found on a shelf with a bunch of dog food. His handler found him last night, apparently moving around. Oy vey. This morning, Buster was lunging at the glass in his aquarium, obviously displeased that his little adventure was interrupted.

Mid-figure eight.

Outside the bathroom...

Alligator!

Anaconda

A 15-year-old tortoise--he was huge.

The handler had her other end--she wasn't loose in the store.

Iguana