Pyrate's Pets(uber DUW)

[Pyrate81]

For doolittle and anyone else who wishes to listen, this is the story of Blackjack. There's pics below if you just want to bybass my long windedness.

When I was a wee lad of 19 years old I got a job at a local Petco. At the time I was more into turtles than snakes but reptiles interested me in general non-the-less. The Petco had 2 snakes which were in the store for an extended length of time(some say a year, whatever): an African house snake and a Honduran milk snake. The assistant manger was a breeder of colubrids and another guy was partnered with his dad and they bred corn snakes, plus a few other associates were really into snakes as well; the one girl had a retic or burm I don't remember. So I was surrounded by a few people who knew their stuff. I guess the first 3-4 months of learning and becoming interested in snakes, I became more curious and inquired about the 2 snakes which were there for a long time. The house snake was one of those unpopular snakes which wasn't flashy or anything. The milksnake had been there awhile and no one would hold him or give him the time of day cause he had a vicious attitude. He was about 3 feet long at the time and in an enclosure which was way too small for him, no one would handle him, and a couple people thought he was wild caught. At the time I don't think it was an attitude problem, it was a husbandry problem mixed with a "he's got an attitude problem" problem. So one day I decide it's time to "tame the beast". On my break I grab the keys from the office and go pull him out with like 3 coworkers watching. Blackjack did have an attitude on him, he did not want to be handle at all. He skunked, he bit, he wanted nothing to do with humans and wanted to be left alone. I handled him once a week for through the summer. Each session I'd handle him until I couldn't take anymore bites. I counted 21 bites after one such session. I eventually got gloves when his biting reduced to about 3 per session.

I was able to put him in a bigger enclosure, not much bigger but he could move around easier and he could now burrow. I kept up with him and was able to handle him more and more. The biting and skunking eventually reduced but there was always caution when handling him. One day when I was handling him a customer came up to me and asked if he could hold him for a few minutes. The customer was an older German gentleman of about 55-60 years old. I cautioned him it would be at his own risk as the snake was frequent biter. We went to the back of the store and the store room. The snake went from my gloved right hand, up the guy's left arm, around his neck, down his right arm, and back to me. It was the first handling session he did not bite me and someone else was able to handle him. He was still consistently wiry and skunked every time I had him out of his enclosure. I probably would have bought him and he would've been my 4th snake but I was out of room between 3 snakes and a turtle tank while living at home. I left Petco w/o him being bought but he was on a "manger's special" at like 20% off or something.

About 3-4 years later I walk into another local Petco and get chatting with the reptile guy who I recognized from training at some point as he was hired around the same time I was. Him and I got to talking about snakes and how he was building an enclosure for one of his bigger ones. One of us described the milk snake and recognized which snake it was. He said he was thinking of giving him up cause his kids couldn't really handle him, he still had a bit of an attitude, and was concentrating on his other snakes. The kids named him Blackjack so I kept the name. So I had some room at the time and offered to take the snake off his hands. The gave him to me in a 20L with not enough aspen to borrow in and a small fake plant in the tank(poor guy). I was a little miffed at the dude cause he was supposed to be a snake guy, but I'd like to think he striped the tank down and was keeping the other stuff in the tank(I think I know differently though). Blackjack was healthy and that was the important part, he wasn't neglected. Anyway, I take him home and give clean out his tank and give him some nice deep aspen with a water bowl big enough for him to soak in.

I gave him a good home, fed him, and showed more love to him than anyone else would. I would only handle him with gloves when it was time to clean out his enclosure, he would skunk me every time but never bit. He has bitten me a few times since I've had him when I put my hand in his tank and didn't know where he was, I gave him as wide a birth as I could. I never had the ambition to see if he would calm down even more, I kept him a show snake and gave him the best home he's had in his entire life. Eventually I was able to give him a nice big 40br tank with some deep aspen which he loves.

Finally this winter past, I got the gal to pull him out and actually handle him. I put the gloves on and pulled him out. He was a little wiry but calmed down after about 5 minutes or so and he just hung out. A couple months later I did it again and pulled off one of the gloves and let him smell me. No bites, no skunking. Last weekend when I took the pictures below, I pulled him out with no gloves and have been able to let him climb up my arms and around my neck. Someone in another thread said that sometimes an animal will eventually just let you help them. Blackjack and I have been living together for I guess 7-8+ years and I've know him for 12. He is now 5 feet long and a gorgeous snake. Much like a lot of the bigger snakes and snakes in general, I think he was misunderstood.

Always thought this line was appropriate for him:
Linus Van Pelt: I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.




Wish I was able to get this pose with his tongue out.