Most extreme reaction I have EVER gotten...

[HypoPita]

Honestly, I can't even believe she is serious... I have a neighbor that Ive been talking to for the past week. After I decided she was cool enough, I told her about my snakes, since if I have company over, I dont feel like sending them screaming running out the door..

Close enough..

I told her that I had a couple ball pythons, that they are small, nonaggressive, not poisonous, and cant get out. She proceded to freak out and said: "my body is quenching and makes me wanna hide in my bathroom. now im gonna have nightmares about a snake eating me" She is convinced it's going to eat her cat. I told her they don't do that and she insists they are. I sent her this picture and asked how this is going to eat a cat: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2760288/charlie.jpg

I told her that they are NOT aggressive at all, and definitely not large snakes like you see in movies. that they aren't poisonous and dont even have fangs. She said "yes they are" I asked where she's getting her information or if shes pullin it out of thin air..and she said thin air, but its one of her biggest fears.

She's calmed down a bit since, but wow....

[Bruce Whitehead]

*edit* Rickin' Rackin' Frackin' laggin' computer posting everything twice!

[Bruce Whitehead]

Guess it is a good reminder that there are people that have genuine and paralyzing fears of snakes... the one reason I hate that people trot around in public with their snakes.

She may be irrational, but i do not doubt that you can acknowledge that her fear is very real.

Sounds like a great oppurtunity to be an educator.

Bruce

[BILLB OKC]

You now have a mission! make a snake lover out of her.

[Hulihzack]

My next door neighboor is the same way, he won't come in my house now that there's a 2.5 foot rosy boa in it. Snakes just aren't for everyone.

[HypoPita]

Bruce: I completely understand that there is a real fear there. I've stressed that they are in a locked enclosure, that they are harmless nonaggressive snakes. I'm trying my best to educate her, but most importantly help her calm down, which isn't really easy with pretty irrational fears.

Now, if she was like our maintenance guy here, I'd sympathize with their reasoning a bit more. He used to live ...I forget exactly, but somewhere in south america. He was hunting in the jungle with his cousin, when his cousin got tagged by some venomous. He had to rush him to the hospital but he died on the way. THAT I can understand.

I'm a pretty convincing guy, normally being able to flip someone's viewpoints 180*. Let's hope this is the case with her as well. Any tips would be greatly appreciated, talking points and such.

I have learned (before her) to not go "these aren't those really large snakes that get 20 feet (OMG!) they are small snakes, getting only 3-5 feet long" "OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!" I NEVER bring up that they are ONLY x-amount of feet.

[Bruce Whitehead]

My friend Ruzica can finally come into my house after 3 years... with her the goal was just for her to acknowledge that she knew her fear was irrational.

Once we got there then it was up to her, and she chose to push herself.

Sometimes that is all you can do.

Bruce

PS: On a perhaps humorous note. I have a friend that is one of the darkest artists I have ever known (and one of the most brilliant) but she has a paralyzing and irrational fear of baby birds. One day a Robin fell out of its nest and was between her and her house, she had been in the studio) and she had to barricade herself in her studio for 8 hours till her husband got home. She came out to try and make her way to the house, but the bird was laying there STARING at her and when it *peeped* at her she had a complete meltdown and passed out.

I send her random pictures of baby birds in the mail all the time... she has wallpapered her studio with them.

[HypoPita]

ROFL!!!

OH NOES! Not a baby BIRD!! *dies*



I understand reptiles, because people are afraid of what they don't understand, but a bird? I rescued a gigantic crow before. Those things are a LOT bigger than you think.

[Kaorte]

Wow dude. That kind of sucks! That is like the reaction I dread the most.

Hopefully she will learn to love them!

[Imabur.]

My mom acted the same way. I have an issue with bringing home animals all the time and i 'accidentally forget' to tell my parents before doing so.. I found out that cats and dogs and fish and anything else would make for a good pet for my mom and not enough to piss her off... too much. But the second she found a snake tank setup in my room a couple days after I had gotten him, she freaked out, started screaming, telling me to get it out of the house and she didn't want it in her house, blah... blah... blah. I argued back explaining how I've had him, she hasn't notice, she'll never have to deal with him or handle him and every fact I could think of about how a BP is a great pet. But she didn't fall for it, left the house, went to my grandma's and called, telling me she's not coming home until he's gone. So..I ended up moving out for a while with my new BP.