After more than a month on the run, a pet snake that escaped from its owner's Gaithersburg apartment is back home.

A friend pet-sitting for Evie Crocker while she was on vacation noticed that the snake, a 3- to 4-foot Columbian red-tailed boa, had gotten out of its cage July 24. It exited the apartment, in Rosewood Condominiums on Streamside Drive, through a sliding door left cracked for a cat, and neighbors snapped pictures as it slithered out on a vacation of its own.

Crocker put up flyers around the neighborhood when she got back and the reported sightings started coming in. Someone called Saturday to say they spotted the boa, a female named Eothen, crossing Emory Grove Road in Gaithersburg, and watched the snake until Crocker came to capture it with a sleeping bag. Two days earlier someone else reported seeing the snake sunning itself on their porch.

"She's had quite an adventure and she's even grown," Crocker said, adding that the snake did not have any signs of injury. "I was really worried, I've had her for eight years."

Columbian red-tailed boas are found in Central and South America and on average grow 6 feet to 9 feet long, according to the Oakland (Calif.) Zoo's Web site. They are not venomous.

Crocker advertised a $200 reward, but Eothen's rescuers said they didn't want to accept the money.

"They were really nice," she said.