Hi! I'm getting ready to have my very first ball python. Purchasing a gorgeous baby boy bumble bee from Mark Ogden, who has so far been absolutely wonderful to deal with. On a minor payment plan mainly because I am traveling a lot this month due to work & holidays and don't want to have a new critter in the house and not be around.

I used to have a pair of leopard geckos - a normal I purchased in college (Starbuck) and a second...purplish-grey girl (Boomer) that I acquired a couple of years later from some dorm-living friends who got caught with a leopard gecko and had to get rid of her. Boomer was never very healthy and unfortunately died while I was out of town (my boyfriend was terrified that was the end of our relationship because he was the one watching her). Had a necropsy done that revealed an odd-shaped heart, which the vet thinks was the cause - she lived to be about 7-8-ish years. Starbuck lived to be about 12-ish; she had an odd growth on the side of her head that the vet thought could have been a cancerous bit - she was already feeling her age, so I opted for a quick end instead of waiting.

Figured it's time to bring another reptile into my life and I've always wanted a ball python. I'll have questions in the future (won't receive my boy until January, but I think I've already settled on a name - Smaug) but just wanted to say hello! Been lurking a lot the last two months. Figured I better introduce myself before I reply to other posts and have folks wonder who the heck I am.

Live in Austin, far-northwest Austin, and work at the University in a neurobiology lab. Don't have my PhD yet, but I've got my BS & MS in animal science (livestock) with a focus on endocrinology. Despite working with livestock, I had some cool chances to work with reptiles - used to draw blood on rattlesnakes to check circulating corticosteroid concentrations. I'm a pretty laid back kind of gal...I hike a lot, but don't go out for the night life that often any more (I've become a home body honestly...a lot nicer to sip whiskey on the back porch than deal with all the drunken college kids downtown, though that is fun once in awhile).

Any other Austin/Central Texas folks?