Mourning my 18 y/o corn snake, planning on a BP to fill the hole in my household

[Coluber42]

Hi everyone,
My story is that I loved snakes as a kid, and as a teenager I saved up my allowance for a ball python and then a couple years later, an albino corn snake. The ball died years ago (bad story about the furnace breaking down and the snake digging down to the UTH). Eclipse, the corn snake, departed for the happy rodent grounds last week, after being in my life for over 18 years (or was it 19??).
Obviously I did always know that day would come, but I can't believe how upset I was and how empty the house feels. My partner was never particularly a snake person before meeting me, but he'd lived with the little guy for ten years too and had gotten pretty attached.

In the moment, I couldn't even think about getting another animal; I dumped everything out of the enclosure and got rid of all of it, and hid the tank itself in the attic. I buried all the remaining frozen feeders along with Eclipse in the back yard. (I know, that's sort of bizarrely sentimental and/or reminiscent of ancient Egypt... he'll have plenty to eat in the after life I guess)

But after another couple of days of not even wanting to go in the living room and see a big empty space, I've decided to get another ball python. Part of me has sort of wanted to drop what I'm doing and get one rightthisverysecond all week, but I'm telling myself to relax, be patient, get some new supplies and set up a new enclosure, and then get a new snake.

I'm sort of overwhelmed by the variety of spectacular morphs out there now - the last time I bought a ball python it was Bill Clinton's first term and I was a kid going to the pet store with her allowance.

So, that's my story. I'm looking forward to getting a youngster to fill the big empty hole in our lives.

[Slim]

Welcome to BP.net!

That's such a good story. Very sorry for your loss, but it sounds like a new BP would be just the ticket! Enjoy picking out your new snake.

[DellaF]

So sorry for your loss! Can't wait to see your new ball.

[Coluber42]

Thanks! I'm so totally impatient, and I've been obsessively looking at photos and reading about everyone's snakes on this forum, just like I did when I was a kid.

So, of course I have to get all new supplies because I got rid of almost everything... and then I thought I'd ordered a bunch of stuff and was expecting it to show up, and then realized that I'd added it to my shopping cart and forgot to go through checkout. But it should come tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be able to get the temps and humidity dialed in without too much fuss, and then I can bring home a new baby. I shouldn't be impatient -- I'll hopefully have many years to enjoy the new snake, so what does a day or a week matter?