Snakes on a Plane?
So yesterday I was at Gumbo Limbo, and it brought back alot of memories. You see I've been going there for years now. My first memory of Gumbo Limbo was when I was 5 years old. We went there, and there was this Florida King Snake in a cage named "Pretzel." I asked to hold him, and I was rewarded with having him wrapped around me and my neck. My parents have a picture of me just glowing. Every year I would go back and see Pretzel, up until I was 8 or 9. Then I was told some sad news, Pretzel had been sent away.
He was too old and needed special care.
They replaced Pretzel with Onyx, who was an Indigo Snake. I used to hold her as well, but she never had the same magic as Pretzel. Eventually Onyx left, and now they have a decent amount of "Rat Snakes" and one King snake, but unfortunatly, the King snake is old and senile so no one can hold him. For the past 4 years or so, I've wanted to hold a King Snake again, and never could. Yesterday, that's a different story, I went in, and decided to ask Debbie (person in charge of the volunteer's) when they were going
to get another King Snake. To my surprise, she said that they just got one, and it's a couple months old. Of course I immediately asked to hold it. Debbie said I could, took me in to where they were keeping him and let me hold him. He was tiny and curling up to my hand for warmth.
I was asking some questions about him when I looked down, lo and behold, this King Snake did something that made me ultimately nostalgic and happy.
Pretzel has been reborn. :-)