A Glimmer of Hope

[Vasiliki]

I just had to share this with people that would appreciate it....

I've been in love with reptiles since I was 12. In fact, I was SO close to picking up a Corn Snake back then, but my mom wasn't comfortable with feeding them mice. So I waited until I was older. But my boyfriend at the time told me he wasn't fond of reptiles either, so again I waited yet again. We broke up, and a year later I met an amazing man. No words can describe how hard I've fallen for him over the past two years now, haha. He supports my hobbies and doesn't question what I enjoy in life. When I told him I finally wanted to take the leap and get a reptile, he took me to the local reptile show so we could touch and feel and see what we wanted.

Picked out a Crestie, and it's been great ever since. Until recently, when it seemed like he had a change of heart with the reptiles. I learned later that people were giving him a hard time about me having reptiles. "Why do you have a snake?" "Don't you think you guys have enough geckos?" "I don't understand why you'd waste money on something like that."

It got to him. I know it did, because he started not to want to get involved with them. So I stopped talking about the reptiles around him. They are kept in my office, so they aren't even in display throughout the house. Kind of got disheartened about it. Then a local breeder hatched out a Pied Ball Python that I just fell in love with. She was planning to hold him back, but a few weeks later she contacted me and told me I had first dibs. So I put a deposit down on it, and told my other half about it. He seemed frustrated at first. "I didn't want to get anymore. If you get this one, when will it stop? Will it ever stop?"

I went through with the transaction, since Pieds were a dream of mine since they were 10k.

I hadn't talked about any of the reptiles for about a month at this point. Not taken them out in front of him, etc. I just wanted to give him space, not pressure him with my interests. Mentioned just in passing that I got new pictures of the Pied, if he wanted to see. He said Sure, so I showed him. He said he was a gorgeous little snake. I left it at that, and didn't push it.

The other night, while he is on night shift, he tells me he wants to tell me something. Something he'd never thought he'd say. He said:

"I'm actually pretty excited to get the Pied Python."

I casually asked him why that was, and he told me that the Corn snake we had was too active for him, too much for him. He didn't feel comfortable handling her. And that snakes were his favorite, so he really didn't like handling the geckos. But he didn't want to ask if we could get another snake, because he had told me not to get anymore geckos and I think he felt guilty for telling me "No more".

It was such a relief to hear. I definitely feel like we're at capacity for the amount of animals we have, but I'm so glad to know what was bothering him now about the hobby. And now, because of that little Pied, and because of my amazing breeder letting me purchase him, it's rekindled that interest my other half had in the hobby when we picked out our first pet.

I asked him if he could name him, because I couldn't think of anything. And he told me he'd already thought about it.

So, my new Ball Python is looking like it's going to be my boyfriend's new Ball Python.

It's so much of a relief to know that he doesn't actually hate my reptiles, haha. He just felt left out. And now we have a little Pied coming to fill that void. So. Excited.