[thechat] animals
Luther, Ron
Ron.Luther at compaq.com
Fri Sep 28 07:15:25 CDT 2001
Hi Andrew,
<sigh>Just gave away my animals!</sigh>
A lady from the Children's zoo portion of the Houston zoo came by and
took one of them about 3 weeks ago. "Candy" - the female corn snake
I've had for the last 10 years or so. (She was about 6 months old when
I bought her from a REALLY wierd guy in a very bad neighborhood in
Cleveland, Ohio. How wierd was he? The guy had red spitting cobras
['nuff said], Russel's vipers [they kill more folks in Asia each year
than Tigers], Gaboons [longest fangs on a venomous snake in the world],
diamondbacks [Eastern's are 'psychotic'!], and goodness knows what else
--- in his basement! One day he sent his teenage daughter down to bring
a few up so I could watch them feed. It's pretty eerie to watch a
Gaboon eat! (The fangs move independently of each other and articulate
to 'walk' the food down it's throat - very very disconcerting to watch!)
[He also had 'Tina' - a Burmese python he put on a diet to get {down} to
340 lbs!]) "Candy", however, had wonderful color, (possible Okeetee!),
and a great disposition.
Here's a pix of someone else's 'Okeetee' corn:
http://www.serpenco.com/cultivars/okeetee.html
My other little critter is now in a 7th grade science room at a middle
school on the North side of Houston. (I dropped him off there about a
week ago.) "Spooky" - a male Pueblan milk snake - {looks a lot like a
North American coral snake [the South American corals have a different
color scheme - the "rhyme" don't work down there!]}. I bought him as a
hatchling about 8 years ago when my California kingsnake died. [They've
only been "known" to science since Dr. Hugh Quinn published the
description in the literature in 1983 -- now they're a commodity in the
pet trade - go figger. I met Dr. Quinn shortly after I bought Spooky.
Pretty nice guy.]
Here's a pix of someone's Pueblan:
http://www.applegatereptiles.com/species/campbelli.htm
Oh well ... at least the "kids" are in education!
Slightly bummed,
RonL.
(Former zoo docent - who spent a lot of time "doing the reptile thing".
Hey, they're quiet, low maintenance, and hypoallergenic!)
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Forsberg [mailto:andrew at thepander.co.nz]
Subject: [thechat] animals
How about a 'weird'n'wonderful evolt pet competition'?
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