[thechat] animals

[Luther, Ron]

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'?