Smulkin and I paid a visit to one of our local pet stores this past weekend. It's a big chain franchise store, and we purchase a lot of our supplies there (for our numerous pets) because the prices are pretty reasonable. Well, Smulkin has been itching for a new ball python or two, and since we live where we do, it's much more convenient for us to check out the pet shops than try to find a breeder. We bought Suki and Neph at another local pet store (not a franchise store, incidentally), and they're both happy, healthy little herps.

Anyway, we go into the big franchise store, and naturally, Smulkin heads straight to the reptiles. There was a cage with 4 or 5 cute little baby ball pythons. One of the sales associates was there with another customer talking about how "nippy" they were. That sent up a red flag - "Nippy ball pythons"??? So we hang out there a little longer, and the sales associate asks Smulkin, "Would you like to see one?" "Sure," he says. So they start looking around the cage, and the girl says there's a smaller one inside a hollow log in the cage. Smulkin expressed interest, so she picks up the hollow log and starts shaking it as hard as she can to try to get the snake out! I was horrified to say the least! I looked at Smulkin, shook my head, and said "We're not getting anything here."

Before we left, the sales associate asked Smulkin if he wanted one of the ball pythons, and he said "I did until I saw you shaking it out of the log." She said, "Oh, that doesn't hurt them." ?!?!?!?!?!?! The ignorance astounded me. At the very, very least, it would explain the "nippy" nature of the snakes.

Okay, there. I had to vent. Needless to say, Smulkin and I will stick to the non-franchised local pet store where they treat their snakes like cute, fragile little puppies (honestly, the girls who work there kiss the snakes and let them crawl through their hair when they take them out for you to look at).

On a related note, we did contact a breeder. Smulkin is meeting him tomorrow (he's 4 hours away, but Smulkin was driving through the area anyway), so we might have new babies tomorrow We're so excited!