Snakes

It's funny — a few years ago, when I was repotting some plants in my back yard, I reached for a garden hose and almost grabbed a small garter snake by mistake. I screamed bloody murder, went inside and locked the sliding door, and asked my friend Shawn to come over and kill it. If he didn't catch it, I swore I would pack up and move out. That was two years ago. Today, I have six pet snakes that I love and I'm still looking for more!

I guess I got over my ophidiophobia because of Ashley. During the summer, Ashley found a baby gecko at work and brought it home. He housed it in a plastic reptile cage, with clean ashtray sand as a substrate. We fed it baby crickets, and he was just the coolest thing. One day, Ashley found a wild anole and put it in the cage with the gecko. Later that night, there was only a single, fat anole. I was so upset by the loss of the baby gecko. Ashley threw the anole out the window.

A few weeks later, Ashley came home with a ribbon snake. I was horrified at first, and I couldn't believe he brought one home. Over time, I grew very attached to it. But we didn't know how to care for it, and it got sick and died. I was devastated and promised that I would study snake care and take better care of the next one.

The next snake was a Ribbon snake that I picked out at the store and brought home. With my new knowledge of snake care, Gus has has thrived and grown to be a happy snake. Of course, now the ball was also rolling. So I brought home another snake... and another. I can never just stop at one!