You both have very valuable points.. But I do tend to agree that a snake can be conditioned to trust as well,based o.n my own experience with my animals, yet they are still animals and I know at times I am over humanizing their responses to coincide with the emotions I am familiar with. Abigail, my pinstripe,for example, does strike out at my spouse in a fearful fashion, but happily crawls up my arm after being rudely awakened by yanking her hide off. She'stare at me a moment, give a great yawn, and then crawls right into my hand and up my arm. From there I either let her roam my desk, where she always ends up back my lap, or I set her free on my bed where she enjoys tunneling sheets only to eventually crawl her way up onto my chest. Once there she tucks her head in my Palm where I then gently stroke her skull and slender neck. Now most would assume she's just tolerating my touch, and I would agree if she had only done this once, but this is routine, would she not avoid resting her head in my hands, having the conditioning to know that I "WIL" touch her vulnerable area? I don't see snake as an actually showing affection per say, more like seeing us as a security blanket of sorts. But on that note, to bring down the snake gods on my head, I do handle my girls Dailey, which seems to increase their confidence not diminish it. Is it possible to love your security blanket? I don't know. Humans fall in love with their body guards all the time, But even if I strain I could only guess loose affection for lack of a better term.

Long story short, yes, I believe some sort of bond exists beyond the feeder/fed position. Or as I said, maybe I'm just over humanizing and relating my emotions to an animal who has a cunning similar to a Cat who will fake affection to get those tasty hand outs.

(I hope this makes any sense whatsoever, I'm sunning on little sleep and even less caffeine, but this post reeealllly caught my attention)