No, it wasn't a planned visit or anything. Rupert lives in Indiana. And I always joked with my wife that since he claimed he was a snake lover on the first series he was on, that maybe he would come in to buy something some day.
Well, it was the end of the day and I was about to start shutting down our table. I needed a couple of rats to take home to feed "Rupert" our male het albino ball. I walked over to the table that was selling them. As I stood there, looking at the sizes of rats, the guy next to me says "what is the largest size you have?" I thought, wow, this sounds like Rupert off of Survivor. And as I turned to look at him, I almost flipped out. My brain went through a slow motion realization that IT WAS RUPERT!
I turned to look across the room where my wife was standing at our table. She already saw him and was jumping up and down trying get my attention. She saw me standing next to him but realized I didn't catch on at first that he was there. It was very funny. Most of the public was gone for the day so it was a very small group of us vendors that were talking to him. He was there with his daughter to buy some rats for his snakes and a pet mouse for his daughter.
The guy is very very nice. He was patient as we all got our pictures with him, autographs and stuff. A couple of vendors even called friends on their cells and Rupert talked to them.
Rupert said, "I've been coming to this show for years, but that was before anyone knew me".
Don't know if we will ever see him again but I think we will.
Troy Dozier
Reptilian Projects
www.reptilianprojects.com
