For Those of You Who...

I am with you JLC. As long as you are not breaking any laws, or purposefully trying to freak people out with your snake, I don't see the harm in it. Again, like JLC said, people that are afraid of dogs can't tell people that own them that they can't walk their dogs outside. And there are people out there that are terrified of dogs....a lady walked in to the petstore once and started screaming and shaking when she saw a man with his miniature poodle. She asked if we could tell him to kindly leave the store so she could buy her cats food. Heck no!!! We can't throw pets out of a petstore just because you fear them!!! Our manager had to go in the back and bring her her bag and cans of food..needless to say, we didn't say a word about the guy who was walking around the store with his rottweiler..:giggle: And it has been my experience that more people want to touch my snake and ask questions about it rather than run away in horror.

I have no intention of taunting people with her. In fact, we're going to a wildlife reserve that's not frequented as often as the regular parks. I wanted to ask about the carrying. Brad, I think, can tell you that whenever I bring her to Noah's, and I've done it a couple times, I take her in a pillowcase, but I try to make having a learning experience for other people. I don't terrorize them, nor do I think that anyone claimed that I did. I personally think that it's a good idea to get her out and about sometimes. Not for a long, long time, but enough time to relax in the grass, smell new things, and have new experiences.

I actually took her outside yesterday, just around the apartment, but people were curious and wanted to touch her. I'm not going to force her into anyone's hands. That would be uncomfortable for Ophelia, the random person, and myself. I'm extremely cautious.

On a sort of offtopic note: I was riding the city bus one morning, and there was a blind man who had a seeing-eye dog with him. This one woman literally crawled over and under seats to get away from him. Leadless to say, she never road the bus again.