Well, I am totally fluxxomed now!

Over a year ago, I had a gravid female eastern garter named RUBY, and a male named Sienna, who escaped their enclosure and disappeared into my basement. I spent a good bit of time searching for them, and months later, I found Sienna, who was living under the staircase. He probably had not eaten in all that time, unless he ate spiders. However, many months after that, I still could not find RUBY.

Well... here we are, almost 18 months later.

My neighbor asked me to come over and see what was lying by her front porch.

It was RUBY! She is fat and sassy, and probably gravid again!

She is living inside my neighbor's concrete front stoop... slithers in and out through a little hole that turns upwards, thus preventing any probing of the hole.

Ruby comes out about 6 inches from the hole and suns herself, but thus far we have not found her further away than that... and she is quick and I, in my 55 year old slowness, cannot move fast enough for my hand to beat her to the hole.

Yesterday I put out her old food dish with four f/t minnows in it, and this morning at around 9 AM, she was seen lying in her usual place, and the minnows gone.

AAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!