I get negative comments all the time from coworkers. Luckily my family... well all but a few, dont mind and dont say anything about my pet choices. My uncle is deathly afraid of them and calls me gross and says my room is the room of nightmares, and im pretty sure my aunt/uncle and cousins hate me because i own them (great for me, i dont like them). I laugh and shrug to anyone who questions me and go on about future plans and how i also want to get into scorpions and tarantulas. And to top it all off, I'll even bring in Jimmy Bob, the well im not sure what type of spider he is, i just know he lives in my window and is guaranteed not to be one that packs venom. ;]

Another thing, Osirus gets out and about. I'll drive with her on my shoulders and she sits there comfortably and watches out the window. She goes shopping with me, when i go to the mall, she'll sit on my shoulders and enjoy it. She goes to WalMart, Gamestop, Target, Hot Topic (She's actually a local celebrity there, everyone knows her and asks how she is if i dont have her) and she even gets to go into the deli, where again shes a small celebrity to the girls.

I get a lot of people shying away, others whispering about how gross or scary it is, i get small yelps of fear. But what i get more than that? Is genuine fascination. I've had people afraid of snakes come up and ask and eventually pet her and be surprised that she's not "slimy" or "gooey". I've had people go from fearful and uncertain to wanting one of their own.

So when i have negative comments made to me, i can laugh about it. Because sure, they're negative, but dammit, me and my snakes can and have made a difference to others. We've helped people conquer their fears, and that's enough of a reason for me to just ignore the haters. They're just jealous they don't rock like the herp owners do ;]

It got to me at first and i would actually try to avoid chit chat about my snakes, but now, bring it. have something bad to say bring it, because hating on me or my pets or trying to get rises out of me about you saying something bad about me my pets or the way things are handled with owning snakes, it says a lot about who you are as a person. I grew up from owning my reptiles. It isn't changing. And they can all keep being negative, i've got positive stories to tell that involve my snakes.