When people hear that I have 11 snakes, I get mixed reactions. I get questions like.."Aren't you afraid the snakes will get out and eat your cats?" and "Are they poisonous?"

But bringing up snakes in conversation with some people has actually won a few people over. My sister is now not as scared of snakes as she used to be and has willingly held a few of my snakes. One of my friends is getting a ball python this year (I'm helping her set up an enclosure and such). She is getting a male pastel. My older sister has gotten a spider ball python, which will be on a breeding loan to me next season.

And I will admit, I have taken my ball pythons in to pet stores before. (don't do it anymore though). I found it to be a great opportunity to educate people. They would come up to me and ask questions like "How long will it get?" "What do you feed it?" etc. I always made sure they used the hand sanitizer before touching my snake and I was able to give them information. Now I have seen people do this the wrong way. Once I was working and looked out the window and saw this teenager standing outside with his ball python wrapped around his neck. The temperature outside was definitely too cold for a ball python to be outside.