I have had hundreds of radixes here at the Ranch and many have been near and dear to my heart. Speckle was one of those snakes. I found her right outside my front door. She was a large adult female and was perfect in every way. No scars and not a scale out of place, she even had the tip of her tail. I remember picking her up and looking her over. Her attitude was also perfect. She fit into captive life like it was nothing new. She was a strong, solid girl that produced babies every year for me. Two years she even double clutched. One of her babies resides at the Science Center of Iowa and produced 48 babies this year. Speckle was a visitor to my local schools and always did well with the children.
Speckle was a joy to work with. She would pound down the groceries and never gave me any trouble. She hated my dog Lucy and would bite her on the nose every time she could. These weren't false strikes but full bites. Lucy would see it coming but was helpless to get out of the way, she was a fast snake.
This last year saw some health issue start. She was passing blood in her feces and was dropping weight fast. meds. seems to help and for awhile she recovered her weight but never recovery her tone. This last month saw her go off food and drop a lot of weight. I checked on her a few days ago and found her lethargic with no tongue flicking at all. She felt like a bag of bone with no muscle tone at all. I knew the end was near so I placed her in a container in the bottom of the fridge. I hoped the cold temp would help her pass quickly. Just over 36 hours later she was gone.
I will miss my big girl. I'm so thankful that she spent her last years with me and my family.
Here's a photo of my Gabby and Speckle from a few years back.