Where Socks Go

For Christmas I don't ask for big ticket items like a new car or a food processor or a TV. I like getting a lot of small silly items. Greg has adapted to my preference for cute little gifts. This year he got me a sign that said "Beware of Attack Tortoise", a set of little plastic turtle figurines, a small frog flashlight, a pack of Christmas pencils, and two pairs of socks:  gecko socks and a beautiful pair of socks featuring Laurel Burch cats. Yep, I am easy to please.

A pair of fun socks for Christmas is a tradition for us. Greg really has to scavenge around to find just the right ones. I know he mail ordered the gecko socks and he found the cat socks locally. He remembered how much I like Laurel Birtch cat designs. He did great because I love my cat socks!

....but I am sidetracked a bit.

The other night we were watching Modern Marvels on TV and it featured underwear manufacturing. They did a bit about socks. It was mentioned that the sock company, despite lots of research, could not explain what happens to socks that go into a washer machine but never emerge from the dryer.  It's a big mystery.

But I know.

Yesterday the morning was cold but we had sun thus it could warm up before it plunged into the twenties that night. Frankie, who slept the night in the gecko room, was interested in going out.

I predicted Frankie would not get past the gecko room door or just go outside long enough for a couple of bites of grass. I escorted Frankie from the gecko room through the garage and opened the back door. He stopped inside the open back door, noticed the cold temperature and refused to go farther. He was not going outside. Frankie was contented to sit inside and look outside.  I left him there and returned to the gecko room to carry on daily chores.

I am smart enough not to leave a large sulcata unsupervised for any length of time in a garage full of potentially dangerous items. Since he seemed content to just sit at the door I decide it was safe to let him sit there if I returned every five minutes or so to checked on him.

At the end of five minutes I return to the garage and find no Frankie at the back door. Instead I find him next to the washer machine eating something. You guessed it -- Frankie is eating one of my lovely Laurel Burch cat socks.

I grab the end of the sock that Frankie has not yet eaten and begin the process of slowly pulling the sock out of his mouth (retrieving items from turtle mouths is a basic keeper skill). When the sulcata opens his mouth to chew you tug a bit of the item out of his mouth. It may take a few minutes to get the whole object out so keepers must be patient.

I manage to retrieve the whole sock intact. Frankie returned to the gecko room where a pile of wet soggy hay awaits him.

Absolutely this is a very dangerous event! This is a potential veterinarian visit which means picking up the monster, putting him in the car, and a possible very expensive surgery to removed a impacted object from the digestive track. This is why sulcata owners regularly walk around their property checking for dangerous items, supervise their sulcata when they are in new places, and never never leave a sulcata alone with socks.

Missing any socks?