A New and Happy Update on Sunspot, the rescued Pastel!

[Argentra]

Hi all! I know it's only been 4 months since I posted an update on my beloved 'miracle snake' Sunspot, but since we recently hit a major milestone with him I thought I would give you all a new update.

First, for those who don't know Sunspot is my male pastel (suspected lemon pastel) ball python given to me in a reptile store in Denver, winter of 2007. Links to the story of how I got him and his first difficult months with me can be found here in my last update:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ghlight=pastel

It's been almost 5 years since I got him, and most of that time he's been VERY much against handling. Well, for good reason! But with his story and appearance, I've always wanted him to be an educational snake, so we can teach others about what happens when you don't research, and that horrible things can come from ignorance as well as deliberate abuse. To do that, I needed him to at least tolerate being out in hand.
It's taken nearly all of the past 5 years, and a ton of patience and gentility...but finally we have reached that goal! Sunspot not only tolerates being held and handled, but he has even stopped hiding his head!

To test our success, I took him to the Puyallup Family Pet Expo on November 4th, where my group Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society had a booth for education and adoptions. (I was there the 3rd as well with Topaz my BTS, the whole weekend was awesome) I took Freya (snow corn) along as well, to give Sunspot breaks and because she loves being held and fawned over.
Sunspot did Beautifully! He was a big hit, caused many teary eyes and broken hearts with his story (which I printed up with pictures to save my voice), and took the attention very very well all things considered. I never let anyone else actually HOLD him, but many people were petting him and he never even hid or balled up. I am SO proud of my fella! He's doing better than I ever thought he would.

Here is a picture of us, taken by our president at the expo:


Oh, the shed on the table in front of me was Freya's. She had just shed the night before, and kids and adults alike had fun handling the skin and seeing how shiny losing it had made her.