after a month of traveling and snake hunting in california and texas Maureen and I returned home. Unfortunatly we don't have much to report as southern california was in a terrible drought and west texas was cool and wet. I won't post pics since there wasn't anything you haven't seen before. On arrival at home I went directly to my snake room to see who was gravid as I paired up my animals prior to departure and haven't seen them since. I have a friend that takes care of everything while we are gone. As I went cage to cage I was very happy with the results. I was filled with anticipation as I opend the drawer with my 277 pinstripe pairing. The male I caught just north of Carruthers in 2004 and the female is a captive bred 277 red bluff produced by Aaron Matteson in 2004. The female has grown and matured nicely and this is the first attempt to breed them. When I opened the drawer I only found the male ! I didn't panic since I hadn't talked with Ed yet and he manages my collection beautifully in my absence . Ed Fabry, age 70 something , is a colleague of Kauffields from back in the day, and has foregotten probably more about snakes then I will ever know. When I called him I learned that he never saw a 2nd snake in that drawer ! Now I started to panic ! I searched every cage, drawer, nook and crevice in my snake room. The snake was gone and who knows for how long ! I searched For 3-4 hours before giving up. Meanwhile Maureen , upstairs was giving me the business about finding what she thought was snake turds here and there which I wasn't really hearing since I had enough stress of my own . Dejected ... I went to the third floor to get ready for bed and when I flicked the light on.........There was my pinstripe crawling down the hall way to my bedroom ! I can't remember a time I was more happy !
Anyway.....I thought I would share since we are all are just waiting for the rain to stop and temps to warm up. We will be back in a couple of weeks . hpoe to see yall out there!
