I love animals. Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian and I wanted my kids to have pets to care for and love (when I finally had kids). I always assumed we'd have a dog or a cat, or even a horse.
I never, ever thought we'd own a snake.
I like snakes. I really do. I've always thought they were beautiful and their "taboo" nature made them even more intriguing to me. I distinctly remember bringing a 3-foot garter snake home once when I was 8 or 9 only to be greeted in my yard by a frantic mother who had no idea if the snake was dangerous or not. Personally, I thought the reaction was a bit "over the top", but I guess snakes aren't for everyone.
They are, apparently, for Lance. He was out with his soon-to-be Grandpa (Abby's dad) a few weekends ago doing some yard work at Scott and Abby's new house and found a baby black rat snake curled up in a decoration attached to a tree. So, Lance decided to keep it and christened him "Molty".
We still need to get him a proper terrerium--for now he's taken up residence in our old tad pole tank--but he's doing well and growing. I think he's really, really cute. George isn't too smitten, but Jude and Cole think he's awesome.
Scott and I convinced Lance's teacher at Back to School night to let him bring Molty to school for a personal "show and tell" the following Monday. It was neat to be there and see Lance beam as he was the star of the class for 10 minutes while he showed off his snake and answered questions.
I love his teacher's face in this picture. We brought a "pinky mouse" to feed Molty so the class could see how he eats (you can get baby mice from the pet store that are dead and frozen that you then thaw at home to feed your snake), but that got vetoed by the teacher. She claimed she thought it might upset some of the girls in the class, but seeing as all the girls held Molty and the teacher merely touched him quickly, I think she meant to say it might upset her. I had to giggle a bit to myself. Like I said, snakes aren't for everyone.
Molty did a great job! I was a little nervous he might try and bite after being passed around to so many kids, but he was totally calm the whole time.
"Molty!"
Since we didn't feed the snake at school, I fed him at home for Jude and Cole to see. It took Molty a few minutes to locate the mouse, but once he found it, he got right to business.
It was the craziest thing to see a snake swallow a mouse in "real life". I've seen it on TV and such, but to watch it happen right there was a neat experience. Snakes are so cool.
I love his coloring. It's sad he's going to be mostly black when he gets bigger. And he's going to get a lot bigger. When he's full grown, he'll be between 5 and 8 feet long! Scott thinks once he reaches 3 feet, he may need to be released into the wild, but I think he'll be fine.
Welcome to the family, Molty!
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