Herps seek seclusion. Look at the edges of the room next to the walls, the darkness under a chest of drawers, behind bookcases or inside closets. Move your refrigerator away from the wall and use a flashlight to look under it and behind it for your missing animal. Take off the vent from the bottom front and use the flashlight to peer into the coils and around the motor of the refrigerator. Check inside your shoes. Look underneath and between those magazines you have piled up against the wall, and shake out that bath towel that somehow overshot the laundry bin and has been next to it for a couple of days.



You can try setting a trap. When the lights are out and the humans are abed, your missing pet may venture out in search of moisture source or. more rarely, food. You can try to lure a frog or insectivorous lizard by placing your holding tank of crickets on the floor with a water dish nearly by. Set your alarm before dawn so you can check on the set-up using a flashlight. Put a thawed-out mouse of the right size inside a closed small box with an access hole on the floor. Tuck the box next to the wall in your snake room. Maybe the snake will find the mouse, dine and decide to stay put in the box.

Climbers, like chameleons, are going to look for something to climb, and they generally like climbing floor-length drapes, or any fabric that drapes down to touch the floor. They find ways to hide in the folds of the drapes, so look for that telltale little sag that tells you there is a little something hiding. Check any clothing in your closet that touches the floor. If your bedsheets touch the floor, check between the sheets and inside your pillow.
I've heard of dusting a hard floor with flour, to detect movement patterns at night, but this doesn't work if you have dogs. All you're going to see are dog foot prints with matching flour footprints across your carpeting.

Check these hiding spots at least once daily. If luck is on your side, you'll find your missing pet in time.

Patti Bartlett spent her formative years chasing lizards and butterflies in New Mexico. Although she has more than dabbled in museum management, Asian studies, and publishing, at the end of every day she goes home to a resident population of snakes, frogs, turtles and mammals. She is the author or co-author of some 65 books-- most about reptiles. For a list of current titles, please visit the Richard and Patricia Bartlett page in our bookstore.