Hey all.

I'm just now forcing myself to go about posting this, as it's a couple of weeks past now. But I have some terrible news:
Nagisa is dead.

For those who don't recall or didn't see the thread I introduced him, he was the young normal male (who might have been a Special) that I introduced here not long after I introduced myself. My first ball python.

Two weeks ago Friday night, I came home from work to find that my cats had gotten up to where his keep was set, knocked it down and broke it open, and got him out. He was alive when I found him, where they had dragged him downstairs to the living room and the cats and dog surrounding him when I got in, but he didn't last much longer than that.

More than anything I put the blame on myself for this. The cats were just being cats, and I had let myself grow too relaxed and put too much faith that I had them 'trained' to stay out of what they were supposed to. I had just moved Nagi up to his adult keep and it didn't fit where I had his hatchling keep, so I had set it in a slightly more accessible area temporarily till I could jurryrig something more secure, and I was too comfortable and lax to go about this with the instantaneous speed I should have.

I will NOT make those mistakes again, nor will I expand my collection again till I have something for sure as secure from hunting paws as absolutely possible. My cousin and I are planning to build some rack systems complete with simple mechanics to lock the tubs in place as soon as we have the space, time, and resources to go about such a project. Until then, my other reptiles are safe, even if this places Shallan a little further from my usual locations within my apartment.

So anyways.

RIP Nagisa, I learned much from your short life, and much from your untimely death, in the practice of these lessons shall your legacy live on.


When I do next return to expanding my collection with the eventual hopes to breed, I do plan to get a Special or a Special combo male, so that I can create the morphs that Nagisa had my fingers crossed for.