what do your friends/relatives/parents as well as other people think of your snake?

I was never allowed to keep reptiles when I was living at home, for various reasons. My mom, who loves animals felt that it was unfair to keep snekes in captivity and my dad, who only appreciates house cats didn't want reptiles in the house at all.

After I moved out, I got Allister and shortly thereafter I acquired Seymore.
My family thinks its a little strange though they have warmed up to the idea. Allister and Seywour had to stay with me at dad's house while my apartment was being sprayed for wasps. He didn't mind the snakes being there, but my step-mom wouldn't come anywhere near the guest room. My mom, well, she accepts it.

So far as my friends are concerned, well, some won't set foot in my apartment. Others don't mind but think it's strange that I would dedicate so much time and energy into nurturing an animal that isn't a dog or cat. I get a lot of strange questions.

A girlfriend would just have to deal with it.

Suffice it to say, snakes are revered in my house and St. Patrick is not welcome. I don't really mind that some of my friends don't come over anymore, I've always felt that we can have more meaningful relationships with the animals we take care of than other people anyway.

I get the same response from basically everyone I tell that we have a snake - "YUCK"; "Aren't they slimy"; or my personal favorite "Because you wanted a warm and cuddly pet, huh?" LOL! I take it w/a grain of salt because I reacted the same way before I got Ziggy so I can kinda relate.

I forgot to mention that Karen has pics up of our little family in her cubical, and a couple of guys asked about our snakes and were wigged about it. She was highly amused by this. ;) Buncha babies.

lol, funny ... well, to be honest with you. all my "male" cousins think that im cool, that im the 1st one who would kick everyone against the wall "even my wife" and get a snake. but size REALLY matter, i mean imagine how scared they get from a baby snake! she's only 6 months old!!!! completely harmless. imagine how their reaction would be if the snake was fully matured ... FUN!! :D ..

my boss used to have a boa when he was studying in the snake! he's so inlove with snakes alright. infact, the 1st day when i got to work , he was like "OPEN THE BAG. GIVE ME THE LITTLE BABY!!!" :) i told him its too cold to get her out. so he's planning to come over someday "i dont know when!" .. now, he's married and got a baby. he wants to get one sooooooooo bad!!! but his wife doesn't want him to....

you know, i have respect to all women here who love snakes!! :D

I respect girls who like snakes as well, and I do, from time to time, think of what would happen if I turned up with a woman who didn't appreciate them. I am fortunate in a way, because the girl I'm seeing now appreciates my love for these animals, even though she doesn't completely understand it. I'm fortunate that she doesn't try to stifle my enthusiasm for snakes, because honestly --and I know this is totally contrary to what Zen dictates, I don't feel like I would be a complete person if I wasn't the acting care-taker for snakes. I like having them around, and I enjoy looking after them.

I have no idea how I'd react to a wife that "Didn't want me to have them ..." Like I said before, she'd just have to deal with it. I recon I ought to make sure to find me a woman who loves snakes I guess, should this current relationship crash and burn as they are wont to do sometimes.

The thing that really bothers me though is the inability of certain individuals to understand why someone would enjoy the captive husbandry of snakes. Seriously, I see people walking their dogs or rather, their dogs walking them, I go to their townhouses or apartments and their psychotic (for want of proper exercise and appropriate jobs) 100 pound german shephers and labradours jump all over me and bite me and despite this, I still visit them. I still at least try to understand how somebody would want to look after a dog (even though I disagree with keeping dogs -especially work dogs- in an environment which is too small, and with not giving these animals jobs to do. You can have a dog, just make sure it has enough room to play, a job to do and that you train him or her properly). It boggles my mind, it really does. They'll keep crazy dogs, talk baby talk to these animals and let them have free run of the house, but the moment somebody talks about building a stable macro-ecosystem to suit the needs of his prized ball python or nicaraguan boa constrictor they instantaneously regress to the level of 5 year-olds "eeew snakes are slimy and gross and dangerous ... can you teach them to eat vegetables? ... do they poop? ... why do you want one of those, you're weird and I'm not setting foot in your house!".

It's ludicrous.

I'll curtail my rant though, for the moment.

__________________
--Kenny

1.0 - normal ball python "Allister"
1.0 - boa constrictor imperator "Seymour"
1.1 - feral cats "Dante" and "Marzipan"

hehhehee, all come with time, im trying to change this idea to people around me. well, im sure if i got an adult ball python, she would really get a heart attack.

instead i got a really really small snake "common egg eater" after she got used to it. i was giving her hints that im gonna get other snakes she was like "isn't this one enough?" , then she told my mom and her mom and they even BEGGED me not to bring one home!! i told them that i wouldn't bring a scorpion "even though i love those too!" or spiders because i know they are dangerous, humen are bound to be afraid of the unknown. they were like "what if it bites it!". i told them "if you treat it right. it will never bite u. and there's a risk of biting even if you hold an insect or an ant. everything defends itself when threatened" i couldn't gotten a scarier snake. but i think BP are so cute and so innocent looking. specially with their baby eyes.

im sad to tell you that i wouldn't call those "my friends" i just call them stupid people. i mean, friends are supposed to accept you the way you are, sure they tell me that im nutts and crazy. but most of them wanna see it , although i wont force someone to hold lahsa.

I only have one or two friends who claim to not like snakes, but only one has refused to hold him. Ironically, the worst reaction I've had was from my old science teacher! heehee I've also had people wanting to watch him eat (maybe I should start selling tickets =P) But yeah, overall more facination than fear.


Both of my parents are pretty indifferent, and my sister loves him so much she wants a snake of her own! My dad keeps saying he wishes I had gotten a bird, but seems to care about his well-being.

The #1 question people ask me is "what do you feed it?" I'm like....are you serious? haha

my mom: everytime i talk to her she tells me to set if free out side (its middle of winter right now) and tells me to kill it all the time

my dad: i think he cares more for my snake then i do (our phone convosations basically revole around how my snake is )

my sis: curious but leary

my lil sis: thinks its the coolest snake ever and has a pic of him in her wallet

the rest of my family: thinks either 1. i'm insane 2. that basill is going to kill me 3. or really doesn't care

my friends: some of my friends have snakes and the other some are not comfortable when he is out (but other then that they don't mind)

I'm 35 or so. My parents and my wife's parents dread snakes and rats, and they all swear they're never coming to visit again. *shrug* If I knew it was that easy......

My wife was indifferent at first, having a master's in math logic, there isn't anything that phases her unless it really is dangerous. Think "Data" on star trek. She's well read, has a great memory, so she knew more about them than I did before I started looking. She has since been heard to say "cute" in relation to the snakes. I still have yet to hear her describe me in such a way.

My children all think they're great, though my oldest son, at 8 years old is trying hard to be brave around them. My youngest daughter (4) just loves them, and always wants to hold them. They even play with the dead rats prior to feeding.

My parents are okay with it these days. I moved out ages ago. Also, not long after I got into bp's, I told my mom to check out nerd's website and see how much the morphs were going for.

My friends just think it's a bit weird that I have so many critters, and probably a little bit on what I have, but they're used to it by now.

In the overall scheme of things, the snakes aren't really what bothers most people. It's the inverts (mostly the SPIDERS :omg:!) that bothers/confuses most people.

I've got about 50 tarantulas/scorpions, and two different feeder insect colonies.

I don't typically mention to non herp/non invert people that I have a bin of feeder roaches. :neener: