CE was in her original cage right after confiscation and managed to opened the door—flying to the top of the trees.

I called my local zoo director pal for a special netting but we ended up showering her with water so we could disable her temporarily.

We got her back and needless to say, she became my bird, got an upgrade in caging and still managed to figure out a way to test me and get out to play on top of the cage!

Is this a case of good environmental enrichment or…?

Years ago I worked at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. One of the buildings had a number of animals, incudling the escape-artist tarantula…

So I am working a late night and need some supplies from an ajacent office. I don’t turn on the lights because there is enough to see large objects from the various cages warmed by incandescent lamps… I find the desk I need and flick the switch on at the bottom of the base of the desk lamp…

My heart skips a beat as the desk lamp illuminates a very large, non-native spider about 3 inches from my hand…

One more lesson learned - well remembered in this case, for I had seen this before - they shed. Houdini had not actually escaped that night, but had shed a couple weeks ago… ;)

My theory is that the rumored escape arist tarantula was a legend designed to make sure new employees properly secured critter cages after handling…

The various sheds around the office from a number of different critters certainly make for a differen sort of decoration than in most offices, too.