CEDAR FALLS - Snakes don't bother Dick VanBesien, but when he came face to face with one Tuesday morning he still got quite a start.

"It shocked me at first. I thought it was a piece of paper, but when I went to pick it up, it jumped. I jumped, too," said VanBesien, a janitorial employee for the library.

That piece of orange paper was actually Skeeze, the 1-year-old red albino corn snake that had been loose in the Cedar Falls library for a little more than a month.

No one knows where Skeeze spent the last month, but he was finally found under a chair in an alcove with east-facing windows near the adult fiction section. On sunny days the light streamed through those windows warming the area and making a perfect home for the orange reptile.

"Everyone had been looking for him, I was just the lucky one to find him," VanBesien said.

In fact, most people had given up hope that they would find Skeeze. On Monday Laura Walter, a library assistant who was charged with caring for the animal, picked up the pans of water that staff had scattered around the building after he went missing.

They figured even if Skeeze was still in the library the likelihood he had survived this long without food or water was slim.

They had combed the library several times, including the exact spot where Skeeze was eventually found, but without any luck.

So when the call came just after 8 a.m. Tuesday, Walter couldn't have been happier.

"He probably wondered where his water was this morning," she said. One of the pans Walter picked up Monday was in the same area where Skeeze was found.

Walter said the snake, which measures about 2 feet long and is "as big around as a woman's index finger" is a little thinner these days, but otherwise healthy.

"The first thing he did was take a long drink," she said. He rejected his first meal, but Walter expects a better result when she tries again in the next few days.

Steps have already been taken to ensure that Skeeze does not escape again. For now, larger rocks have been placed over potential exit sites on his cage. And in the near future Skeeze will get a new home designed especially for him.

"We are looking into purchasing a locking cage, one that is designed for a snake," she said. An anonymous donor will help make that possible, Walter continued.

Skeeze was an integral part of last summer's reading program on animals. Walter said they will use Skeeze's escape as another vehicle for interesting kids in reading and writing. Plans are already under way for a writing competition about "Skeeze the Snake's Spring Break."

"A few kids have already been in and they are so excited to see him back," Walter said. "So are some of the adults."

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1520 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.