Monday, November 26, 2012

Settling In

The snakes are settling in, and I'm settling in to being the keeper of four snakes.  I've had to bump up our central heat to get their ambient temps where I'd like them with this cold snap we've got going on, and my next mission is to figure out how to raise their ambient temps without jacking my power bill up sky-high.

Regarding the stressed-out relatives and random community members, I've decided this is just not something I'm going to worry about.  People are going to feel the way they're going to feel, and it's nothing personal.  We're not being persecuted for owning snakes; all is well.  I'm going to instead concentrate on why I threw myself into this so wholeheartedly:  my son.  When I first started researching snakes and snake ownership I came across You Tube channels like Steven Tillis's Rep Tillis Herps and Brian Gundy's For Goodness Snakes.  What I came away with, and what I choose to focus on, is that snake keeping is a great interest to facilitate in a child.  It fosters responsibility, knowledge about animal husbandry, increases awareness of genetics... I really don't see a thing wrong with it.  And I'll approach it like that with others.

I fully respect people's concerns and fears and have zero intention of "pushing" snakes on anyone, and would never think it was funny or cool to startle someone with one of our animals.  But that said, I'm also not going to run my household in fear of what others may say.  My home was already essentially a zoo.  The snakes merely brought the animal count to double that of the humans.  The only folks I ask to live with it aren't complaining.

Well, in the case of the teenager he's made a few comments, but he also admits he can be bought.  So I'm not too worried about him.  Heh.

Oh, and from my husband the other day, "So where do you plan to put your big snake?"  I thought he meant Lucy at first (as opposed to Sarah), and I said she was either moving into GZ's room after quarantine ends or is staying in our room.  He clarified he meant my eventual boa constrictor, so it looks like that's a go if I decide to go that route someday.  Yay!  But I did tell him that isn't something I'm looking at moving toward in the near future at all.  We have all the snakes we need for the moment, and I need to concentrate on getting Scales and Lucy through quarantine and fully established.  Also, although I keep looking for a boa that won't get over six feet, what I'm finding is that most seem to top out between 8 and 13 feet.  Right now, I think that's a bit too much snake for me.

Knowing my limits = a good thing :)

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