I felt a little uptight today. One kid missed school, one has a big test tomorrow, and one had a project due and a test. In other words, I have IMs going like mad and Google wants to charge me per hit, while my mind switches from manganese to ser versus estar to Wounded Knee and back again.
Two Nimrods wanted the Nimrods' computer. Both had valid reasons. After some debate, I gave up mine and went back to bug Mr. Sapphire.
It's been a while since I've been back to the snake room. I mean, I go there almost daily to talk to Mr. Sapphire, but I was actually in the snake room, looking around, and paying attention. A certain frame of mind needs to be utilized in the snake room, because everything...and I mean everything...moves.
Mr. Sapphire pretty much keeps the mice to the left-hand wall, along with their food. To the right, there is a 50-gallon tank with rats. Yes, rats. Huge, ugly, smelly...
They used to be huge, ugly, and smelly, until Mr. Sapphire introduced us to soft-furred rats. Their little ears are so big they flop onto themselves, and they are so soft! I mentioned how cute they were and KitKat, who wandered back to let me know the computer was free, covered my eyes. The last time I took a shinin' to critters, I stole their cage. I have a spot by the window that's free...
Mr. Sapphire no longer keeps the ugly rats in the snake room proper. We have a room toward the back of the house, and they have been rightfully banished to give way to the precious soft furs with their soft, ruffled coats. Did I mention we have one that looks like a panda bear?
Then, you see the snakes, each kept in its own Rubbermaid (or knock-off brand) tub of a size made to accommodate the slitherling. We have a couple of new acquisitions lately, a baby spider ball python and a baby lemon ball python. I talked to my friend from the kitchen tonight.
Arachne (right) and No Name
I know it's silly, but picking a name for a snake takes a while. We now have two spider balls, one who got named "Spaz" pretty quick because of the motion he does with his head, a weaving motion. Scooter was always on the go, and Gideon - he was just a special deal. Mr. Sapphire purchased a snake and his snake got shipped to someone else. In order to rectify the mistake, they gave us Gideon at the same price. Given that he's a black pastel, which are hard to find, it was worth missing out on the snake Mr. Sapphire initially wanted. Gideon's grown a lot. He's a very nice little guy. He's never tried to strike anyone, and we got him out of his box twice tonight, once to satisfy my curiosity, and the next for me to show my enthusiasm to KitKat over how much he's grown. He wound his tail around our hands and looked at us like we had a right to be there. Yeah, he's cool. Delilah was one of our first; Jezebel, too, and she's got a nasty habit of striking food but not eating it. Both have grown so much over the last year.
Scooter (right) and Gideon
In addition, we have one we think is ovulating. Her body is all bumpy and her spine is showing. We're not new to snakes or their genetics, but we are relatively new to the whole reproduction thing. This is Mr. Sapphire's first true breeding season, and the boys are hard at work. Scooter's finally figured out how to slow down his life a little bit, and Gideon's just stalwart.
We've had a few accidents, too. Spaz thought it was a good idea to stick his head out of one of his air vents. We still can't figure it out, but he got his 2.5-cm head out a 0.5-cm hole. Mr. Sapphire called me back there to help, and it took a few breaths to realize what I saw, Spaz's head poking up with the white Rubbermaid lid hiding the rest of his body. He dislocated his jaw and, when he took that first rodent after the accident, Mr. Sapphire breathed a huge sigh of relief. Tonight, he proudly showed me how Spaz is back to normal, his head waggling every which way.
Our other accident involved a very large normal female. We only suspect she struck a rodent and hit the floor a little too hard, as there were no marks on her, just a very swollen head, so swollen we thought she lost an eye. In looking at her tonight, her head is now back to normal, and the eye is still there and working fine! Mr. Sapphire just IM'd me to let me know she just ate for the first time since 09/22. That's significant. That was her date of injury.
We named the new spider baby "Arachne." My friend from the kitchen is now "Moonlight," and we're working on names for a few of the others. I'm gaining confidence that we might actually be able to get some more eggs soon, and maybe little morph hatchlings.
Moonlight
My gerbils rock the world, though. If having the snakes got me my gerbils, I think that alone was worth it. Most certainly, some of it has gotten me some good blog fodder, so that's definitely worth it.
I'm redoing my tags here to make things more organized, so bear with me. I feel so relaxed right now. I'm excited about the future and creating morphs, not just for the retail value (although that's definitely the first priority), but for the experience. This gives us material for science projects for years to come, with established documentation. Mr. Sapphire's exhaustive records are such an asset.
To see the rest of our ladies and gents, please visit his site. I might help him get some new pics this weekend and help him update. We don't have anything for sale, but it helps him keep track and let everyone see what he's doing.
For more dementia, please see sapphiretigress.com. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
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