I picked up my first ball python on Tuesday from someone practically giving her away. She's sweet, healthy, a good eater, and about 18 in long (her previous owner says she's about five months old). I am 100% in love. Unfortunately, I still live my family, and our house keeper (who is a very sweet woman) is terribly afraid of snakes: I can't keep her right now. I'm wondering if any of you are in the DC/Md/Nova area and are willing to house her until I move out, or know anyone willing to house her. I want to be an active participant in her life still so I would come over once or twice a week to feed her and clean her/her tank: all you would have to do is make sure her water is clean and that she's warm and healthy. I really don't want to sell her or give her away for good: she's just too sweet and cute for that and I want to watch her grow up into a healthy, big mama snake. If any of you could help me out, even just pointing me in the direction of a good temp home for her, I would be incredibly indebted to you. I would be willing to pay babysitting fees, or, since she's a gorgeous girl (no special morphs, just beautiful coloration) with a wonderful temperament and is apparently of an unusual gene pool (her previous owner says he bought her at a repticon in the dc area and the man who sold her said she was wild caught), if the person temp housing her was interested in breeding, I would be willing to give full breeding rights to them.

tl;dr: Young, sweet ball python needs temporary home in DC metropolitan area.

thank you so much!