Corn snake Mikey slid through a hole behind some bathroom pipes after owners Jasmine and Jo tried bathing him to help sort his bowel issues in November 2021. Jasmine said: “He got pretty constipated, which is a weird thing to say, but he wasn’t t eating amazingly so we gave him a bath because that tends to help things along with snakes and also he seems to really enjoy them.”
“So, we just filled up a tub with some lukewarm water and popped him in, but for some reason he just really didn’t like it. Immediately he zoomed off around the bathroom.”
The 16-year-old serpent then coiled himself around some pipes behind the sink and refused to budge.
Jasmine said: “We thought, ‘It’s okay, he’ll have to come down at some point, we’ll just wait until he relaxes a bit and then pop him back in the tank because he’s a very strong boy’.”
“He’s pretty much harmless to humans, but you can’t unwind him from something. Once he’s decided that’s where he is, he wants to hold on.”
But Mikey had other ideas and slipped through the hole leading to the basement, sending Jo and Jasmine into a panic.
Jasmine added: “By the time we realized what was happening, we couldn’t actually get him back up. So we obviously panicked.”
The couple spent hours searching for Mikey, but their attempts to tempt him back out with mice and heat pads proved futile.
Local pet shop owners advised them Mikey was probably happy and would see out the rest of his days in the basement.
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“We just thought, ‘Well, there’s a good chance that he’s fallen prey to something or he’s just died of old age’.”
But Jasmine got a shock life last weekend when she was browsing social media and saw a picture of Mikey captioned “Anyone lost a snake?” in a student Facebook group.
She told the Manchester Evening News: “Completely by coincidence, I was actually at the pub in Fallowfield when I saw it.”
Jasmine said she recognized Mikey immediately due to his distinctive markings.
She added: “I just immediately jumped up and went, ‘Oh, my God, Mikey’s back!’.”
“I had half a pint on the table, but I was like, ‘No, I need to make sure he’s okay’. I just ran directly down.
“When I saw him sitting in the garden, it was absolutely unbelievable. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again.”
The couple said they were sure it was Mikey not only because of his markings, but also his personality.
Mikey was coaxed into a pillowcase and taken to Jasmine and Jo’s home in Stockport – where he now lives.
Jo said: “We think he’s still adjusting to life again. He’s been a bit jumpy.
“He was very, very grumpy when we first found him again. He was in a big threat pose, trying to strike at people.
“But he’s trying. It’s only been a couple of days since he got back. We’re going to take him to the vet tomorrow. We’re really lucky that we still have all his stuff.”
