It all started when my mother told me that I could not have reptiles in the house. Like any child, that was only an open invitation to begin bringing lizards and geckos from the front porch and snakes from the backyard into my home. I always hid them under my bed so she would not find out.

Then when I got into college, I took a vertebrate natural history class and for a grade, we HAD to collect herps from out county. Around the same time, I also took a genetics class. I became fascinated with genetics and made it a goal of mine to explore my new knowledge.

A year ago, I got my first snake, a corn snake. Since then, my collection has grown to three with two more on the way. I want to be able to see genetics in action when I begin to breed my animals. I'm fascinated by the potential babies my animals can make and I look forward to raising them from before their conception until their deaths.