Greetings from the Lone Star State

[razrbak]

Back into the madness after a 15 year break. The life long fascination/collecting ended in '96 when the wife and I decided our new (to us) 800sq ft house was not big enough for the two of us, 2 boxers, 2 cats and my red tail... Given the wifes lack of passion for the herp, guess what was the first to go.
Fast forward a snake free 15 years and our family took possesion of a baby 50/50 B&W male Cal King. Bewilderingly enough, it was the wife's idea?????(seems my lovely 8yo daughter is a better sales person than her old man)
The wife teaches third grade science and wanted a fascinating classroom mascot and asked if I would recommend, help her pick out and manage the care and feeding. "Marty" (zebra from movie:Madagascar) will be a performance reward for select (few) students on a bi-monthly after school showing/handling- strickly supervised/directed by me. Marty has been with us now for about 3 weeks, the kids love him, heck, the wife even digs him. This is my first king, what a chow hound and already very cool about being held. Marty made a brief appearance just prior to school starting at "Meet the teacher" night and was quite the buzz around school.

I had resigned to the fact of "hanging up" my passion for snakes, and it kinda broke my heart to see part of my childhood fascination burn in my daughter as well.
Now we have the opportunity to educate years worth of class rooms... life is good.
Eric

... problem however, the ADD is now in overdrive... Marty is technically the wifes snake, I need a black milksnake to feel complete!

[purplemuffin]

Wow, that's awesome! Welcome back to the reptile world!!

Can't wait to see pictures of Marty! I've heard kings are quite the eaters!

Edit: and hello to a fellow Texan!

[llovelace]

Hi Eric & Welcome to BP.net

[razrbak]

Marty... just shed this morning.

[razrbak]

and another during a soak...

[Boanerges]

Welcome to ball-pythons.net That's a cool looking snake

[Popeye]

to BP.net.

[Vypyrz]

Hello, and to BP.net...

[razrbak]

Thanks for the welcome all.
The snake "hobbiest" industry sure has come a log way since the early 80's... holy cow, the quality, availabilty, pricing, and easy of care(feeding) is increadible. In '82 I brought home my first purchased snake for $90- a wild caught 4ft bp. Proir to that it was all wild collected Gaters/Ribbons, water snakes, Texas Rats, Butter Milk Racers (all a nasty bunch) and Hogs. Other than the Hogs, it was an adventure every time I got near or removed one of these demons from their cage... got bit many times & realized I no business messing w/venomous. Most ended up being released within a week.
I'm gonna have a real hard time keeping it under control... this list grows daily of wants.
Anyway, good to see so many people out there who share the obsession, always thought I was on an island growing up.
Eric

[MarkyMcFly]

Well, as a new member myself, welcome back!

and on another note WOOOO PIG SOOIE