DAILY NEWS (Anchorage, Alaska) 27 December 06 Stars not quite aligned for nasty boa - Owner still hasn't found the right home for hissing pet. (S.J. Komarnitsky)
Wasilla: It looks like no Christmas miracle for Nekiza, the ill-tempered 6 1/2-foot Amazon tree boa with penchants for biting, hissing and putting people in choke holds.
Owners Michelle Hicks and Scott Rounds say the search for a new home for their beloved pet has attracted a lot of interest. Unfortunately much of it has been as eccentric as the snake.
About a dozen people have called or e-mailed the Palmer couple since a Dec. 13 story in the Daily News about their attempt to find a new home for the snake. Bought nearly two years ago at a Wasilla pet store, Nekiza has grown increasingly hostile toward people. He hisses and strikes when people pass his cage. He's twice bitten Rounds.
Many of the callers have expressed a genuine desire to help the snake, the couple said. One even appeared to be a perfect match.
A woman with a thick accent called to offer to fly the snake back to its native Brazil. Nekiza was caught in the wild, and Hicks and Rounds believe he would be happiest if released from captivity.
But Rounds said the woman started talking about the stars being in alignment with the planets.
"I started thinking, 'Wait a second. She wants to use (Nekiza) in some kind of ritual,' " he said.
The topper came when the woman explained she was going back to Brazil to serve jail time.
Rounds, a devoted snake owner whose home menagerie also includes three emperor scorpions and two Chinese water dragons, said other callers have come up short as well.
One Anchorage man seemed very snake-savvy, and genuinely interested, Rounds said. But he said he heard from a friend of a friend that the man was a marijuana dealer. Rounds saw visions of Nekiza being seized by police and auctioned off.
A few callers have been more interested in the attention associated with taking the snake than the snake itself, Rounds said. He said one man asked if the news media would be there to meet him.
Another offered naively to take Nekiza to the Everglades. That would probably break a Florida state law banning imports of non-Native species. Rounds suspects that despite Nekiza's bravado the snake would not fare well against the Sunshine State's indigenous reptiles.
"An alligator or crocodile would probably eat him within seconds," he said.
Still Rounds had hope for one possible lead. An Anchorage woman who said she already owns three snakes and a variety of lizards and spiders offered to take the snake. She said she uses the animals in educational displays for children, but doesn't let them be handled, Rounds said.
Rounds said friends have asked if he isn't being overprotective of the snake, especially for a pet that has twice bitten him, and once put him in a chokehold so tight he couldn't swallow.
"I think somebody, one of my friends, made a comment to me: 'Are you being stubborn?' Yeah, I am. The last thing I need to do is pick the wrong person and I'm going to look really bad," he said.
Like other pet owners, he just wants Nekiza to go to a good home, he said. "I'm still hopeful he'll get what he needs," he said. "(But) if we can't find a home, we're just going to keep him.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/8519766p-8412786c.html
DAILY NEWS (Anchorage, Alaska) 14 December 06 Aggressive boa for sale - The snake's aggressive attitude dampens interest in owning him (S.J. Komarnitsky)
Photo at URL below: Michelle Hicks, left, and her fiance Scott Rounds are looking for a home for Nekiza, their 61/2-foot Amazon tree boa. (Stephen Nowers)
Palmer: If you're looking for a last-minute Christmas present, consider avoiding Nekiza, the ill-tempered 6 1/2-foot Amazon tree boa.
For four months, Scott Rounds has been searching for a good home for his beloved reptile. But the snake's bad attitude has limited its appeal.
Nekiza's problem is he just doesn't seem to like people. He hisses. He spits. He strikes. He literally bites the hand that feeds him. Earlier this year, Nekiza put Rounds in a chokehold, lassoing the 31-year-old Palmer man's neck so tightly he couldn't swallow.
Rounds said he escaped by sticking his head into the snake's cage, eventually getting the boa to loosen the grip on his throat in favor of a branch.
"He is aggressive," Rounds said. "I don't believe in telling people he's a great snake."
Bad attitude aside, that doesn't mean Nekiza isn't worthy of some sympathy this holiday season.
Rounds, whose Palmer home also includes three emperor scorpions, three geckos and two Chinese water dragons, iguanalike creatures, said Nekiza is an amazing animal.
In the wild, tree boas can jump twice their length; they spend most of their time in trees feeding on unsuspecting finches. Watching him slither about his cage, moving sticks around, and devour his meals -- most typically a dead rat -- is fascinating, Rounds said.
"I love this guy to death; he's an awesome guy," he said.
Fiancee Michelle Hicks, 38, who provides care for developmentally disabled adults, is equally enamored of the snake.
"It's twisted, but it's like watching a train wreck," she said. "You can't turn away."
Hicks said she picked Nekiza out at a Wasilla pet store a year and half ago. His slate-gray coloring sprinkled with brown and red dots, his feisty attitude and his crinkled tail -- possibly the result of an early encounter with a bird -- entranced her.
"He was just so beautiful," she said.
He was also caught in the wild, unlike many store-bought snakes, which are bred in captivity, she said.
Then only a paltry 3 feet long, Nekiza seemed tame. But he grew increasingly aggressive once they got him home, the couple said. After about six months, he started lunging at the side of the cage when they walked by, Rounds said.
He also started trying to bite. Twice he sank his teeth into Rounds' hand.
While not as bad as a scorpion bite -- a feeling Rounds compared to being stung by 30 wasps at once -- the bite still hurt, he said, especially as the snake started walking his nearly inch-long teeth up his hand. Constrictors do that, Rounds said.
"They pull out one tooth at a time, move it up, then pull out the other fang," he said. "They keep doing it over and over again."
Then came the chokehold incident. Rounds said he could have forcibly pulled the snake from his neck, but it might have killed the animal. Instead he tried to stay calm, and eventually he decided to stick his head into the terrarium.
Nekiza wasn't doing much to increase his appeal as recently as last week. Coiled on a gnarled piece of wood in a small tank, he kept his head up, continually flicked his tongue and generally looked like he was trying to will away the glass between him and a visitor. That's his strike pose, Rounds said.
To decrease his appeal even further, he defecated when Rounds went to retrieve him.
The couple said they've tried to make Nekiza happy. They added natural habitat, including bamboo in his cage, fed him more and tried moving him to a bigger cage.
"He doesn't seem to want to be happy," Rounds said.
Hicks said the couple would never consider putting the snake down. "That's like asking me to put one of my kids down because he had ADD (attention deficit disorder)," she said.
Rounds said he wouldn't let his pet go to a home where someone doesn't know how to care for him or to someone who might decide he's too aggressive and throw him out.
Most of the approximately 12 people who have responded to his ads so far have lost interest as soon as he mentioned the snake is aggressive.
Others were dissuaded by the work involved. Caring for a snake is more labor-intensive than people think. They need to be fed regularly, have their cages cleaned and occasionally be rubbed with snake oil -- yes, snake oil.
They must be kept warm. Rounds said his electricity bill can top $300 a month.
Rounds said he's asked for an adoption fee of $160 that includes the tank, but he'd waive that if someone would promise to take Nekiza back to the Amazon or other suitable environment and release him.
"I think he would really like that," he said.
In the meantime, he's still searching for ways to lift Nekiza's sullen spirits. One idea -- finding a female companion -- he considered but quickly rejected.
"I'd buy him a mate, but he'd probably eat it," he said.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/matsu/story/8491506p-8385113c.html
