Epiphany - (awakenings)

[infernalis]

Ok here is a topic for you all, can you put a finger on the exact moment that you suddenly decided that you simply must have a pet snake??

What factor forever changed who you are?

I'll start......

I have always been fascinated with snakes, yet maintained a casual stance, pick em up, say hi, put them down. I was that way for more years than some of you have been alive.

Then one day, Samantha (My daughter) captured Xena and asked if we could keep "it", we were living in a rental and Mr. Landlord did not want any pets. But I asked anyway, he said sure as long as we keep it in the fish tank.

That was the first winter we ever had a snake in the house, and honestly it marked the end of ever spending another winter without a snake in the house

Then Xena had babies....... THE END

[Garter_Gertie]

Mine truly was an epiphany. I can be really stupid and slow sometimes, not being able to see the forest for the trees.

Mine came when Dave said, "Why don't you get your own garter snake?" when I asked if I could keep Winnie at my place during the week. It truly never occurred to me to get my *own* snake. MY OWN SNAKE! Never thought o'that.

Since then there's been no looking back. Nor will there be any going back.

Sure wish I'd discovered snakes a long time ago.

[punky_jen]

I was 14 i think, had was going to adopt a kitten from a local cats home (we got a kitten by the way) and there was a show with reptiles on at the centre, a big albino burm was there, and that was it for me. I still dont have a burm, but i will do one day.

Got my first snake, which was a corn a few yrs back.

[Stefan-A]

Ok here is a topic for you all, can you put a finger on the exact moment that you suddenly decided that you simply must have a pet snake??

Yes and no. I've pretty much always known that I'd get a snake. What finally triggered it, was when I realized how common they had become and that frozen mice were available in my local pet store. To give some context, it only became legal to import exotic pets in the late 1980's, so the entire hobby was up until then in the hands of people with snakes smuggled into the country illegally or in the hands of people who were breeding animals imported before the ban. If you ignore those people, then the keeping reptiles as pets is a very new thing here and the hobby is still growing quickly.

Suddenly all practical reasons why I couldn't keep snakes disappeared just like that.

[Sid]

Wayne, My start was much the same as your's. I would find them and play with them as a child (and knew if I were caught by my parents the snake was domed). I married in 1966 and was visiting a pet store that had two Eastern Garters for $2.00 each. Those came home with me.

My wife being terrified of snakes, I only kept most short term. Catch and use to educate scout troops, etc. Then a few years ago I set up a reptile room and have them ever since.

[infernalis]

Sid - I was blessed as a child, my mom was addicted to Garter snakes already, and I think she was the first one to introduce me to them.

But that was back when she used to take us out in her Buick convertible with the top down, jamming out to the in dash 8 track

Luckily, she got to see and hold Xena a few times before she suddenly had a heart attack and passed away.

We moved out of the rental, and as a new homeowner now have the freedom to add as many snakes, lizards, mammals and whatever we want.

Mom had this "extra" living room, one that no one ever "lived" in, well after my sister decided she needed all the display items from out of there, Dorothy and I decided to make it into a reptile room.

Some day when it is close to finished, I'll back up and take a big picture.

[ssssnakeluvr]

hmmm..I was always catching them when I was a kid...finally in 1980, my freshman year of high school I built a big snake cage....I acquired my first garters then and have had them pretty myuch since then, along with numerous other herps.

[gregmonsta]

After always playing with lizards and slow-worms when I grew up in Germany the idea of owning a pet snake was always at the back of my mind ... one day (approx age 14/15) I came across a 'first snake' book in waterstones and just had to buy it .... this became my bible and as it spoke so fondly of Garters I finally ended up with two lovely ribbon snakes for my SYS project ... and that's how it started

[count dewclaw]

Well, I never really had a chance as a kid. Then my husband and I bought this old farmhouse with the "magic basement" and I started escorting snakes from the basement back outside. One spring day we noticed a bunch of garters sticking their heads out from around the old artisian well (no longer used by people) beside the house. We were picking them up and showing them to the kids, but we put them back. Later that summer we caught another garter and decided to keep it for a few days so the kids could watch it more closely. We let that one go. Then this year I decided I wanted to keep some of the pretty Easterns from our yard, but found out that's a no-no in NYS, so let them go...so now I'm looking for Pugets (actually have a lead on some, if they ever get born).

Mom had this "extra" living room, one that no one ever "lived" in, well after my sister decided she needed all the display items from out of there, Dorothy and I decided to make it into a reptile room.

Does it make me a bad mom that I'm already thinking of converting the kids' rooms into snake rooms as soon as they move out? My oldest will be a senior in high school next year.

[KITKAT]

Hmmm...

When I was about three years old (this is one of my earliest memories) I was playing on the porch, and a grasshopper flew and landed near me.

I was frightened and ran into the house.

My mother came out and explained to me that I could watch the grasshopper, play with him, and he would not hurt me as long as I did not hurt him.

I played a game of stomp and fly with him for awhile.

As I grew older, I always brought in bugs in jars, and would have also brought in frogs, snakes, injured baby birds, and whatever else I could find, but my mother would not tolerate the herps.

I often kept pets like this and hid them from my mother.

As a teenager, I had a private room in the basement, and kept a cricket frog in a terrarium, hoping he would sing for me. He later escaped, and after some months, I found him living in a hole in the floor near the entry to our garage, where he found ample food. I left him there and it was our little secret.

So I don't think I ever had an epiphany... I always wanted snakes and other such critters as pets, and when I moved away and got married, my husband worked for the DNR, so I was free to do what I wanted, with some agreed-upon limits.