Try the ladies handbag dept for a snakeskin or python purse...

I probably could touch that kind of snake skin, just not the long, skinny, still-intact ones. Wish we were as snakeless as Ireland. Often thought about a trip there just to enjoy the knowing I'm in a land free or nearly free of them!

:D Oh Jeanie....we're snake-less too, you're both very welcome to have a little pop to calm your nerves....:D

And I think 'Hissing Sid' is a lovely name for your new friend...don't you?!!? ;) :eek: :D Sally + Harry x

Really? Surrey is snakeless!?! How do you manage that? Texas surely needs your secrets!

"Hissing Sid" is good. I wish someone would hiss Sid right out of town, though! I may never work up the courage to go in that PetSmart again. Or if I do, get a bouncer to go with me and walk behind him the whole time! He could toss any blonde men with yucky blonde snakes around their neck and I'll pay his fines, court costs & attorney's fees. Am not a drinker but if someone had offered me a brandy as I was standing there behind the vet I bet I would have gulped it down!

:D The whole of the UK is snake-less Jeanie - apart from tiny harmless adders (and I've never seen one in the whole of my 55 years....!!!). We can buy them in pet shops, and see them at the zoo - but I've never seen one meandering down the street....;) :D

You poor lady - you're not having much luck with your reptile-y things, are you (oh, and maybe you'd best invest in a little hip-flask?!!? :D) x

Good Morning! Did you sleep well? (or at all!):D Hope you have a better day today!

Do you like rats and mice? If the US happens to lose all it's snakes... we would quickly become overrun with rodents... remember the Huntavirus scare a few years back resulting from the annual rattlesnake hunt? Not a nice alternative...

Didn't sleep that well - was a bit jumpy still but slept a lot more than I thought I would. I think the evening of Don Knotts' vibrating used up all my energy and I had to sleep.

Ugh! Don't like rats or mice or spiders or lizards(!) or bugs but I am not crazy phobic of them like with S's. If that had been a rat, would have revulsed & creeped & definitely walked the other way but not nuts over the top and standing behind the vet, pointing, & speaking in single syllables. I truly wish I could conquer this weakness as it is very unpleasant when your giant screen HD TV flashes 5 feet of the open mouth of one on the screen or shows one buggying across the dessert sands. Things like that are NOT fun but at least big screen TV's & all the nature channels have started to desensitize me to them a little. In the old days, I would have left the room until the picture was gone off the screen.

I used to be phobic of flying(and let's say my first flight to a resort town was not pretty) but got to the point that I flew weekly for a while so I know phobias can be conquered if you keep at it. I truly wonder where phobias start? I mean the flying fear is from the fear of falling for over a minute knowing you are going to die all that time but I don't understand the fear of snakes. I don't worry they will get near enough me to bite me or even fear their bite - I just detest the idea of them and think they should not be around though practically I know they help mankind in many way. Just wonder how the heck my sister & I got so darned afraid of something so little and overall harmless. But I'd probably rather face King Kong than have one chase me or get on me! That's the ultimate fear - one getting on me and having it touch me and crawl on me. Eeeewwwww ....eeewwwww.....eeeeewwwwww. Now that, I fear.

Anybody else this totally weird about something like bugs or things like that?

Jeanie, I am that way with spiders. Most people see them as a tiny insect pest, but they are enormous to me. I'll never forget a nightmare I had as a kid that my bed was infested with spiders, then when I was 16 I got bit by one that was in my pant leg and spent 3 days with my leg elevated as two red streaks crept up my thigh like a highway mapped out on my skin. And, I'll never forget the day I found the first (yes, I said first) brown recluse spider in my house in my daughter's bed. Our house became ifested with them after we replaced carpet. Did you know spiders love warehouses and dry places, like rolls of carpet :eek:? We moved. I decided education is key and I wasn't going to live in fear. I researched everything I could about spiders and learned which ones were dangerous and which ones are harmless. I still don't like them and am fearful but not like I used to be.

Snakes are similar. Some are actually very very good. Did you know that bull snakes, that we have here in KS, save farmers millions of dollars every year for rodent control. Like KJC said, they eat the rodents that spread disease and cause damage to property, AND they are perfectly harmelss to humans. Same with many other kinds. The same cannot be said for the exotic snakes that were once pets that aret turned loose. It's sad to see what they are doing to Florida. One of these species is most likely what you seen on this guy's neck.

To get over my fear, I began working for a local snake breeder. He taught me how to take care of the baby snakes that were produced. He started out breeding Albino Boa Constrictors. The babies are around 1.5 feet long at birth. I used to tame them by handling them a few times a week, and they would wrap around my wrist and squeeze a bit.... felt like a little hug. They are not slimy at all, they feel like very soft leather.

An odd behavior we noticed one time as we were feeding them... some of the babies would wag they tails after they were given their food, just like a happy little dog. They each have their own personalities, and can recognize individual people. They are really amazing critters.

And I believe too, that Mommie snakes can count!

Oh, Kathy, I saw your first line and bailed. No can do. The very idea of an "s" breeder is so repulsive I could hyperventilate thinking of it for very long. I'm so far away from even wanting to get that much better as to go where they are bred that it is laughable right now. I'd as soon be swimming with sharks or something. This isn't fear - it's severe phobia and irrational and going where they are bred or even talking to a breeder even on the phone is so repugnant. Irrational as it is, someone that has that many snakes around them is very weird to me & I wouldn't want to know them. That's how bad this is. Now I might could go where the make toy rubber ones and tour the factory but would likely sit up all night with my feet under me and not on the floor!!! I can only hope to get slightly better but know I won't ever be near normal. But I've come a long way - in the past had I seen a snake that close to me, I likely would have run screaming in front of all those people and would never, ever think of going to ANY pet store again. And could never have posted about it. My sis hasn't been in a pet store for over 15 years because she went in one that had them in terrariums! Refuses. Has her helper get her dog's food and products! But for now, I can only keep taking minute little steps like watching a TV commercial that has one on it(cannot stand to see several at once w/out shutting my eyes even on TV) and I do touch & sometimes pick up a toy one in the stores when I get the chance and then go eat chocolate. It's pretty bad right now, Kathy. I'll just quake along here as I am for a while before I take any more steps to get better. Guess right now I'm still super revulsed by yesterday!!! And I am sitting on my feet just posting!

Maybe one day I'll do some research but until I quit sitting on my feet and jumping when something moves, I think I'll wait a bit. You are very brave!!!

:eek: Boy, they had this piece on anaconda's last night on TV and I was sure glad I didn't have to face something that size at the pet store!!! Those things are huge.

They were talking about this snake being a type of "cult hero" from some movie! Does anyone know what movie one of these "starred" in? Cause I think I would like to be sure I never tune that one in.