Jenn- That's little more extreme than I am I'll admit!
My friend is kind of like you- won't kill anything. She even has a snake, Sinbad, that she rescued from a fraternity party at the University of Oklahoma when she was 18 years old. She is 34 now and still has Sinbad. She actually doesn't like snakes and won't touch any other one than Sinbad. I won't even touch him, but Nicole walks around with him around her waist. These guys had him outside in freezing temperatures and put him on the street. They were taking bets on how long it would take him to die. Apparently one of the guy's girlfriends had given the snake to him as a gift, and had recently broken up with him. So out of spite he stopped feeding the snake and was basically torturing it to death. So Nicole, admittedly drunk, said he was an a-hole and she wanted to take the snake. He told her that it kept biting everyone (duh, wonder why) but if she would pick him up and put him in his tank she could have him. So they watched in amazement as this 5'2 inch girl that weighs all of 95 pounds picked up this snake and took him home. The herpitarian (is that right?) department-snake people-at OU did all sorts of studies on him b/c he should have been dead. They were going to kill him to do more studies after he was nursed back to health (how sick is that?), so Nicole took him. She also has a bird and 3 cats, all of which coexist. Sinbad will get out of his cage (Nicole refuses to weigh the lid down since he dislocated his jaw trying to get out) and run the house. Bianca, one of the cats, freaks out and meows until he is back in his cage. It's almost like she herds him! When it's mating season he will get on the sink and do the snake "sex dance" trying to seduce himself b/c he thinks it is a girl snake! So funny! Anyway, Nicole has to feed him rats of course, and she cries everytime! 14 years of bimonthly feedings and she still cries! In the winter she has to keep the rats in a cage to "fatten them up" and that makes it worse for her. One kept getting out of the cage and flipping around, so she named him "Acrorat." She was going to keep him, but got mad at herself and said "he's a rat I bought to feed to my snake, this is ridiculous." She dropped him in the cage and Sinbad ate him in one bite. So Nicole cried for days! For a sensitive animal lover, this is a difficult pet to have. I am so proud of her though b/c anytime she is in a store that sells snakes she tries to talk people out of having them. Hers is a rescue or she wouldn't even have one herself. Oh, the vet said he has about 9 good years left... that sent her home in tears too! Crazy situation. Jamie
