That was it... I had my context wrong for the findnodes function:

Old:

my $status = $dom->findnodes("...");
my $msg = $dom->findnodes("...");
.
.
print $status->getFirstChild()->data, "\n";
print $msg->getFirstChild()->data, "\n";
[download]

New:

my ($status) = $dom->findnodes("...");
my ($msg) = $dom->findnodes("...");
.
.
print $status->getFirstChild()->nodeValue(), "\n";
print $msg->getFirstChild()->nodeValue(), "\n";
[download]

Thanks, everyone, for all the help.