SO happy and relieved!

[dizzy]

Bear with me, I'm a little long winded when I tell a story, but this beautiful snake deserves her story told. I wish I had pics of her, but I promise I will soon...

The night before last I was at a little shindig and my friend told me that our friend (we'll call her C.) was joining the army and needed somebody to babysit her 4-5 y/o female bp, Reina. I immediately volunteered. When C. showed up she began talking about how Reina wouldn't eat and she was thinking about having her force fed... I started thinking "What did I just sign up for?!?!" and Reina's story unfolded...

C. got Reina 2 years ago and she was 2-3 y/o at the time, owned by some idiot that was mistreating her and not feeding her. At one point after starving the snake for a long time he reached his hand into her enclosure and she struck at him and in retaliation he threw her at the wall. She had multiple broken ribs from the abuse. C's brother basicaly took the snake by force from this idiot and as he didn't want a pet snake, C took her. She was living with her mom at the time and apparently her mom hates snakes (thinks they're evil because of the adam and eve story or something) and attempted to "fry" Reina by putting her che or light directly on top of the tank. The tank has a large melted spot on the plastic on top, but Reina survived again. C moved out and in with a roomate and/or boyfriend that abused her and Reina. We'll call him idiot #2. C moved out 6 months to a year ago and the guy threatened to call the police if she took Reina with her, saying that she had no proof the snake was hers.

Reina was with this idiot for the last 6 months to a year and he had her and a BURMESE python in a tank together with NO hide boxes, NO uth or any other heat source other than a light he turned on for only 2 hours a day. The only bedding or substrate was a small amount of commercial bedding that was covering a 1/4 to 1/3 of the floor... A corner really... So mostly Reina and the burm were living in a cold, bare glass tank. C says that Reina hadn't eaten in over 2 to 3 months and the only food idiot # 2 was offering was a large, aggresive rat that refused to breed. The male rat he was trying to breed her to died of starvation. (C. had other pets that her ex also kept.. he killed the ferret and was feeding the chinchilla bird food... I believe he killed a cat too?)

So yesterday while I was at work, C and my bf went to rescue the snake. My bf is a huge guy so he was there to make sure there was no fuss. The snake was coming with them! So the idiot behaved himself while they rescued the snake and C's other pets. Idiot put his 4ft + burm into a little 10 gallon tank since the 40 gal breeder belonged to C and Reina. (and since he's a jerk)

I got home just after they had brought Reina and the tank into our bedroom and had thrown the rat in with it. I don't approve of them trying to put the rat in there after knowing it was aggresive but I suppose C says that Reina ALWAYS eats for her and she was so worried about her not eating for so long that she didn't really think about it... My bf isn't that terribly knowledgable about snakes because he's learned to tune me out when I talk about them. lol

Anyway I walked in the door just in time to watch this HUGE rat bite Reina. I yanked it right out of the tank, and happened to have a live mouse handy 'cus Max wouldn't eat it the day before. He's shedding so I threw the mouse in there and Reina ate it right away. Of course normaly I would have given her time to adjust to everything before feeding or handling her, but that snake was starved and freezing. So a few minutes after she swallowed I took her out so that I could put some newspaper down and lift the tank to put a uth under and put hides in the tank etc. C. had uth's and everything. There was NO reason the idiot wasn't using them. I don't get it.

So we set everything up, put poor freezing Reina back in the tank... She was SO cold to the touch... It was so sad... Got the temps up kinda gradually... And ran out to get more mice. She is definitely too large to be eating mice but I think I'm going to keep her on a frequent mouse diet a few weeks before trying to go back to rats. I'm told she only eats live and I don't want her to get bit by a big rat again. I'll give f/t a try though... (side note: the bite she got yesterday doesn't seem to have drawn blood or left a mark that I can see. Thank goodness)

Anyway to wrap it up... Despite everything I heard, and the sickly, half-dead snake I was imagining she would be... She looks perfectly healthy and active, not as skinny as I thought she'd be... And I haven't seen the scar yet that I'm told she has from the broken ribs. I actually haven't even seen any mites on her, but I was looking through the glass. Other than taking her out to set up the tank I don't want to handle her until she adjusts. And digests the 3 fat mice she ate last night.

Sorry again for being long-winded but I had to share my angiush over what has happened to this poor, sweet, docile little girl who has never bit anyone in her life, though most of her keepers have deserved it, And my complete and utter joy that she seems to be okay. Again, I will get pics of her asap... And I do want to take her to a vet just to make sure everything is as okay as it looks... I don't see any signs of resp. infec. or parasites or anything... But I'm no expert and I might be missing something... I just want to be sure, however funds are kinda tight... I will keep an eye on things for the moment but will get her to a vet as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading