This entry is dedicated to my brother Josh who's dream of having a boa constrictor for a pet may never be realized (ughh...sad sigh). He is soon turning 20 and sent a heartfelt facebook message to all the members of my family asking for money for his birthday to pay for a certain lonely little snake at the local pet store who was to have the name Leonidas. Like an expectant mother he had already picked out the name and was eagerly anticipating the day Leonidas would be his very own. Most of the family objected saying they could not support something that may well lead to his strangulation sometime in the distant future.Others voiced concerns for his love life because supposedly no girl would ever date a guy with a 50lb snake. And still others presented a Biblical case that all snakes are Satan incarnate.

Keri, Micah, Skylar and I went on a Sunday afternoon outing. We didn't end up going to the zoo as planned but our alternate plan was almost as good: a visit to the humane society and the friendly Fountain pet store because they have really cute pug puppies. This particular day they did not have any pug puppies but they did have some incredibly big snakes. Like the kind you see in zoos that have been known to eat rabbits and small deer. I was in the middle of the reptile aisle looking at the various snakes in their glass habitats when I noticed I was at eye level with two black eyes and a flickering tongue that were peering at me behind a plastic barrier. I was so intent at looking at the snakes in the aquariums that I hadn't noticed the stacked plastic drawers I'd nearly been leaning against...filled with snakes. That's right...the kind of plastic drawers that you buy at Wal-Mart in which to keep socks or craft supplies. In horror, I realized that the stacked plastic drawers were not filled with pet supplies but rather snakes. This was the kind of pet stores nightmares are made of, I could just imagine the drawers tumbling over and those snakes going loose all over the store.

I've included a picture of a particularly fine specimen (the snake not the guy), an albino boa constrictor that the pet store worker voluntarily pulled out of it's cage and wrapped around his neck...that's right he knows the way to woo a lady...

Note: The plastic stacked drawers on the left, I don't think PETA would be too happy with their mistreatment of our sleek,slithering friends. By the way, my sister Bekah did her research on these large boa constrictors, evidently by the time they reach this size they urinate and defecate like a St. Bernard.