This is Tator Tot. She was the little preemie in Ms Muir's litter. The day after they were born, I had them all in a large sweater tub on the floor of my office/snake room. Some friends and I were sitting on the floor around the tub looking in at all the babies.

Occasionally, we would reach in to touch a baby or replace one that had started crawling out. None of the babies were paying any attention to us....except Tator Tot. She wasn't crawling around like the rest of the babies. No siree, she was coiled up in the center of the tub watching us - head up - tuned in to every movement. Every time a finger would get close to her....ZAP...she would kill it!!! It was just too cute and pretty funny. When there were no fingers close by, she would zero in on the nearest one and charge over to kill it!!! What a little tiger! I thought, Lordy, I've got a nasty one on my hands. My best friend Rosalee is a shrink, and Tator Tot killed 5 or 6 of her fingers. I told Rosalee she could now say that she was ATTACKED AND BITTEN REPEATEDLY BY A BOA CONSTRICTOR!!! We thought that would be a cute story to tell her patients - first an embellished version, then the real one

I expected to be attacked and killed again and again after that first day, but Tator Tot seemed to have gotten it out of her system. Never another bite....not even a hiss. She wormed her way into my heart with her feistiness and I'm glad Ms Muir went 10 days past her due date. I imagine if she had given birth on schedule, this little girl may not have made it. The warm, fuzzy side of me wonders if somehow she knew that one little baby needed more time......................naaahhh.

Tator Tot - Her first day of life and the day of the finger massacres.

This is how she looks now.

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