i know my snake "loves" me ; let me elaborate. There are primarily 2 people that handle my snake, myself and my 4 year old son. My son is learning about gentle handling but he's still 4 and can be a bit... cavalier. When i hand the snake to him the snake immediately retreats to me, or if he's allowing my son to handle him but the handling gets to be a little too much (mind you, all this occurs under very close supervision) he sort of swings his head around until he sees/smells me, and make a B-line. I realize there is no affection as we understand it, but i do belive that he recognizes me as a source of safety and/or refuge when he's stressed and i think that's about as "loving" as a snake can really be.