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Feb. 18th, 2009 12:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thejunipertreeThe Engineer told me this evening that someone he works with approached him regarding a friend of her's. See, the co-worker's friend recently was ditched by their roommate. And the roommate left behind a snake. Everyone is terrified of the snake and they just want to find it a new home.
The co-worker was not all that forthcoming with information, as she just doesn't know the answers to a lot of questions I'm asking.
- what kind of snake? (they think it might be a boa)
- how big? (possibly three or four feet, roughly)
- what is its health like?
- how about its temperment?
- what has it been eating (it hasn't eaten in a month)? Live prey or pre-killed?
- boy or girl?
- does it have mites?
- what kind of set-up has it been kept in?
So on and so forth.
His co-worker came to him because she knew he had snakes and he came to me because he knew I love boas and have contemplated one for some time. Which I have. However, I would much rather prefer starting out with a smaller boa and spending the time with it to properly bond and become comfortable before it's big enough to put a hurting on me. That's only the beginning of my issues with this situation.
Another is not knowing what kind of health it's in. Sure, it's a free snake and a free set-up (although who knows how proper the set-up is, especially considering it was just abandoned by this schmuck of an ex-roommate). And another is not being all that sure where I'd put another snake, let alone one of any kind of size (and one that is going to need a considerable amount of space in the future, which is one reason why I haven't pursued my own boa so far).
All of that being said, I am absolutely in fits over the idea that this poor creature is suffering and no one is loving it. Rehoming snakes, particularly larger constrictors, is difficult and even if it manages to find its way to some sort of rescue facility, what then?
The Engineer and I were talking and agreed that this snake could be anything. He asked his co-worker what it looked like (grey-brown? little mustache?), but she wasn't helpful in that department. People who don't know snakes tend to lump the bigger ones into two catagories: boas and pythons, while people who do know snakes recognize that "boas and pythons" could be any number of VASTLY different animals.
If it's a retic? No.
If it's a Burmese? No.
Most varities of boa? Possibly. Depends on size, health, and temper.
Ball python? YProbably, depending on its health.
I doubt its anything resembling a corn, milk, rat, king, or bull snake due to the co-worker's vague description of its size and girth. But, any of the others I've listed? All possible.
So, I don't know. I told the Engineer to ask his co-worker for her friend's phone number and I will call them myself to find out anything they may possibly know. Beyond that, we can go over there and actually take a look at it for ourselves and possibly see what it's demeanor is like.
If I do take it, Aristotle is going to go and live upstairs in the Engineer's apartment for some time for quarantine purposes and the boa (or whatever it turns out to be) will live down here. If I don't take it, I will do my damnedest to make sure it finds its way into the hands of someone who knows how to take care of it. It completely enrages me that someone would do this- just abandon an animal in the hands of someone who is not only inexperienced with dealing with such a creature and obviously afraid of it. The co-worker has given it water, but beyond that- no one has done anything but cover the tank up with a towel.
Again, full of rage.
I sat with Aristotle this evening after this conversation and told him that he will always be well loved and well cared for. He just stared at me and I could feel his lung working in the palm of my hand, his tongue lazily flickering. He's really starting to change in size and shape, like beginning to get the dimensions of an adult. He's begun to bulk out in the middle, in the typical fat-ass ball python shape, which fills me full of such joy, it's not even funny. He's gone from a vaguely slender wee thing, shaped much like a cinnamon roll amongst my fingers, to a sinuous line of muscle which stretches from my fingertips to a few inches above my elbow. It's amazing. He's amazing.
I only wish that other people had such an appreciation for snakes, especially the people who have contracted themselves into caring for them.
Hopefully, this devil squid which has taken up residence in my chest for the past three weeks will have moved out by Saturday so I'm not coughing and wretching all over the place in front of these people. The sickness has left me completely exhausted and overly emotional. I get up tired, I stumble around at work all day tired (which is not good when I'm so overloaded from our current open enrollment for benefits I'm facilitating, Friday is the last day of it and then my work days will go back to what passes for normal), I go to class tired, I come home tired. It's frustrating. I have too many things I need to do and no energy or time to do them in.
The co-worker was not all that forthcoming with information, as she just doesn't know the answers to a lot of questions I'm asking.
- what kind of snake? (they think it might be a boa)
- how big? (possibly three or four feet, roughly)
- what is its health like?
- how about its temperment?
- what has it been eating (it hasn't eaten in a month)? Live prey or pre-killed?
- boy or girl?
- does it have mites?
- what kind of set-up has it been kept in?
So on and so forth.
His co-worker came to him because she knew he had snakes and he came to me because he knew I love boas and have contemplated one for some time. Which I have. However, I would much rather prefer starting out with a smaller boa and spending the time with it to properly bond and become comfortable before it's big enough to put a hurting on me. That's only the beginning of my issues with this situation.
Another is not knowing what kind of health it's in. Sure, it's a free snake and a free set-up (although who knows how proper the set-up is, especially considering it was just abandoned by this schmuck of an ex-roommate). And another is not being all that sure where I'd put another snake, let alone one of any kind of size (and one that is going to need a considerable amount of space in the future, which is one reason why I haven't pursued my own boa so far).
All of that being said, I am absolutely in fits over the idea that this poor creature is suffering and no one is loving it. Rehoming snakes, particularly larger constrictors, is difficult and even if it manages to find its way to some sort of rescue facility, what then?
The Engineer and I were talking and agreed that this snake could be anything. He asked his co-worker what it looked like (grey-brown? little mustache?), but she wasn't helpful in that department. People who don't know snakes tend to lump the bigger ones into two catagories: boas and pythons, while people who do know snakes recognize that "boas and pythons" could be any number of VASTLY different animals.
If it's a retic? No.
If it's a Burmese? No.
Most varities of boa? Possibly. Depends on size, health, and temper.
Ball python? YProbably, depending on its health.
I doubt its anything resembling a corn, milk, rat, king, or bull snake due to the co-worker's vague description of its size and girth. But, any of the others I've listed? All possible.
So, I don't know. I told the Engineer to ask his co-worker for her friend's phone number and I will call them myself to find out anything they may possibly know. Beyond that, we can go over there and actually take a look at it for ourselves and possibly see what it's demeanor is like.
If I do take it, Aristotle is going to go and live upstairs in the Engineer's apartment for some time for quarantine purposes and the boa (or whatever it turns out to be) will live down here. If I don't take it, I will do my damnedest to make sure it finds its way into the hands of someone who knows how to take care of it. It completely enrages me that someone would do this- just abandon an animal in the hands of someone who is not only inexperienced with dealing with such a creature and obviously afraid of it. The co-worker has given it water, but beyond that- no one has done anything but cover the tank up with a towel.
Again, full of rage.
I sat with Aristotle this evening after this conversation and told him that he will always be well loved and well cared for. He just stared at me and I could feel his lung working in the palm of my hand, his tongue lazily flickering. He's really starting to change in size and shape, like beginning to get the dimensions of an adult. He's begun to bulk out in the middle, in the typical fat-ass ball python shape, which fills me full of such joy, it's not even funny. He's gone from a vaguely slender wee thing, shaped much like a cinnamon roll amongst my fingers, to a sinuous line of muscle which stretches from my fingertips to a few inches above my elbow. It's amazing. He's amazing.
I only wish that other people had such an appreciation for snakes, especially the people who have contracted themselves into caring for them.
Hopefully, this devil squid which has taken up residence in my chest for the past three weeks will have moved out by Saturday so I'm not coughing and wretching all over the place in front of these people. The sickness has left me completely exhausted and overly emotional. I get up tired, I stumble around at work all day tired (which is not good when I'm so overloaded from our current open enrollment for benefits I'm facilitating, Friday is the last day of it and then my work days will go back to what passes for normal), I go to class tired, I come home tired. It's frustrating. I have too many things I need to do and no energy or time to do them in.
