Ta-da! I'm back!
And now you're thinking to yourself "Who the ____ is this and where did he go that he's welcoming himself back from?" No, huh? Well, dang. I guess I'm not as big of a deal as I think I am. Delusions of grandeur and all that.
A quick introduction and then I'll get on to my latest little prize. In the sixties I kept anything I could catch, from ants to birds to ground squirrels to snakes. In the seventies I had narrowed it down to tropical fish and snakes. In the eighties it was large constrictors and venomous, my all-time favorite is still the retic. And so on and so forth through the years, until a few years ago after a series of unfortunate events (Divorce: The Aftermath) I was forced to sell all of my snakes. Life was barren.
But life does go on. Work is a good distraction, as are girlfriends, and after awhile you adjust to life without reptiles. At least on the surface.
Fast forward to earlier this summer when I happened across a 4" common snapping turtle trying to cross a four lane highway. I stopped, as I always do when I see a turtle in distress, and picked him up and moved him to the other side of the road. His shell was covered in mud so he was a bit difficult to hang onto while he was kicking, biting and snapping but we made it to the other side. I sent him on his way and I drove on home.
An hour later I was headed for my brother's house when, in nearly the exact same spot I see the same turtle going back across the road, headed the other way. I stopped again, but before I could get to him a truck just barely clipped him and sent him spinning across traffic. He looked like a hockey puck and, I have to be honest, afterward it was kind of funny. I went and picked him up and, amazingly, the truck must have just caught the edge of his shell because there was no damage, just a little more mud rubbed off the edge along with the missing mud from when I'd picked him up earlier. I decided that "Soup" wasn't going to be long for this world if left to his own devices. I brought him home.
When I got rid of all the snakes I kept the cages, tanks, etc., so setting Soup up in a new home was no problem. But what does all this have to do with Blood Pythons? Simply this:
There's that "Ta-da!" moment. Meet Cheyenne, my 2010 CH female blood. After picking Soup up off the highway my feeble little brain went into overdrive thinking Snapping Turtle->Turtle->Reptile->Snake->Must Have Snake->Must Have More Than One Snake->Go Now Find Snake->Find Snake->MUST HAVE SNAKE!
Logical progression, yes?
After reading through the many ads here I got her from Ben Siegel, and a pleasure it was doing business with him. He has another female that he describes as "very white colored" which has piqued my interest and he's going to try to find time to snap a picture in the next few days. I need one more female and a male, the male will probably be picked up this weekend. He's an '09 CBB.
The pics don't really do this snake justice. I tried with flash and without but neither captured the pinks and reds on her body. Her rostral scales are dark pink, the labial scales are pink towards the front and transition to red below the eye. The forward slash from the eye and much of the darker pattern on her forward body is also red but it looks washed out in the pics. Her chin and throat are a deep reddish pink. I think she's going to be a knockout once she gets a little size on her.
I apologize for the novella, but what can I say? I'm thrilled! I'm excited! I may even be ecstatic to finally have snakes again. I suppose I could have come on here and posted something like, "Hi everyone. I used to have snakes but then I didn't and now I have a new one. What do you think of my new snake?"
But that just wouldn't convey how happy I am to be back among the living.
Ciao.
