[title from the lyrics of the tune playing in the background right now]

So hello, everyone.

I've lurked - a lot - lately, but really haven't said hardly anything at all. There's so much info on here, I get side-tracked for an hour or so at a time without posting ever even crossing my mind.

My wife (Dawn14150 on here) bought me a 4-month-old normal BP for Christmas - "Karma". The short-lived running joke about the name being that when it - relieved itself? - on someone we could just shrug and say, "Hey - Karma, you know."

Butofcourse... I was lucky excrement-target number one.

Humor is SO in the eye of the beholder.

The BP's a normal, captive-bred and bought at a local pet-shop of high-repute. She's (I don't know the sex yet, but find myself continuing to default to "she") small for her age, it seems to me, though, at 16.5". She had a firmly-stuck shed that wrinkled her up a LOT until I finally got it to slough almost completely off after 3 days of high-tank humidity, daily soaks, and gentle rubdowns with a warm cloth. Just in time for her eyes to go grey-bluish in preparation for another shed.

I'd have much preferred to leave her be in the new tank to adjust, but she looked so awful and is just amazingly great about being handled, given her age and the condition she was in. So long as she seemed to be perfectly tolerating the handling, I took her out here and there to see what we could do to help her out. Now, she's already familiar with the family (our daughter seems to be the preferred warm-tree), and hopefully the upcoming shed'll be a good one. We're leaving her be in her hide with the humidity at about 85% until the shed's complete.

They had her feeding on F/T fuzzies, 1 or 2 a week. I think she could easily be on hoppers judging by her girth, so we'll be introducing them next week (temporarily off feeding at this stage of shed - she ate great for me in her feeding tub last week, if a little clumsily).

In the meantime, we have 3 fuzzies in the freezer for when she's ready for the meal she skipped today.

TheWife(tm)'s hobby (and one of her current college courses) is photography, so you'd think we have some nice pics to show at this point.


Not so. She made a little light-tent perfect for detailed close-up shooting, tested it with all kinds of stuff... It works great, producing photos of a high-enough quality for her to use in school abstract and concept submissions.

The problem, ironically, is that Karma is a very NON-timid, very curious and active little wiggler that won't sit still long enough for a good shot.

Without fail, we'll get her set in JUST the right position to show off her profile and colors, hit the shutter, and get a wonderfully-centered and framed picture of a fuzzy/blurred snake-head and flicking tongue. Seconds later, she's uncoiled and exploring the light-tent, unconcerned.

Ah, well. I can't say I don't love the way she's so passive that balling-up is something she very rarely does even momentarily.

I'd rather have a hundred lousy pictures of a pet that's secure, curious, and active than one perfect picture of one that's indifferent or insecure.

Eventually, we'll work it out with her. Him. Whatever (having the BP sexed is on the agenda - actually kind of dying to know). Until then, my avatar's among the very few half-way decent ones we have.

So anyway... *drums fingers* Now that I've rambled-on and everyone's good and ...

Love reading your stuff, guys. It's all really helpful and there are some good laughs here and there: nice niche community.

Looking forward to getting-to-know.