We all have our things that we are afraid of. I love turtles. I’m pretty okay with lizards. I’ve always been really afraid of frogs and
totally terrified of snakes. And this is
the way it’s been for as long as I can remember. I thought pretty much everybody was afraid of
snakes. Until I met Brad.
I realized there was something a little different about him
the first Easter we spent together, my freshmen year in college. Back then my family had a big Easter
get-together every year. We ate, and hid
eggs for the kids, but the main attraction was the adult Easter egg hunt. Yes, that’s right, the grown-ups hunted more
eggs than the kids. And they were ALL
prize eggs. My family saved up stuff all
year for this hunt, and every egg had a slip of paper in it with a number on
it, and the number corresponded to a prize.
They were GOOD prizes too. One of
my aunts sold Beauty Control, and I would get stocked up on make-up at the
Easter egg hunt, and that year Brad won a fishing pole! But that’s not the thing that everybody remembers.
We were out there hunting our eggs, and my cousin Lisa
reached into big grove of elephant ear plants and saw an unpleasant surprise. “SNAKE!” she screamed, which resulted in a
stampede of epic proportions.
Seriously. We are not snake
people. As we all ran in different
directions, up and down the hillside, screaming and running into each other;
one person heads towards the grove of elephant ears. Yep, you guessed it. My Brad.
He parted the big leaves and took a gander at the
snake. My Eagle Scout quickly determined
it wasn’t poisonous—it was only a little garter snake. But as far as my family is concerned, there is
only one kind of snake: Copperheaded
Rattle Moccasins. We assume they are all
poisonous and deadly. Because if the
snake won’t kill us, we will surely kill ourselves trying to get away from it.
That day as we were running amuck, Brad did something that made
everybody stop in their tracks. He
reached in and PICKED THE SNAKE UP! My
entire family came to a screeching halt, and silence descended on the
land. They all gawked at him. Did I mention this was the first time I
brought him to a family event and introduced him to everybody? Yes, way to make a good impression Brad! I stood there cringing, and Brad, oblivious
to the commotion he had just caused, calmly headed across the road to release
the snake back into the wild and away from my crazy family. As the headed out of the yard, one of my
aunts said “Is he going to EAT it?”
Another aunt muttered “I didn’t know Methodists handled snakes…” And then the third aunt said “Well, at least
we know he can take care of her!” And with that remark, Brad was accepted into the family.
Brad loves ALL of God’s creatures, and somehow I managed to
give birth to a little girl that is just like him. Don’t get me wrong, I love animals too, but I’m
pretty much a dog person. Korban loves
to look at animals, but he’s still learning how to interact with them.
Now Selah has touched snakes before, at different zoos and
museums and such, and she is not afraid of them. Both my family and Brad’s has gotten onto us
for letting her touch the snakes, because they are afraid she will find one out
in the yard or something and just snatch it up.
And I understand their concern, but I really don’t want her to be afraid
of snakes. I know that sounds crazy,
coming from someone who’s always been terrified of them. Here’s the thing—I don’t like feeling
afraid. Snakes give me the heebie
jeebies, but truthfully, most of them are not dangerous. I read somewhere that like 95% of people who
were bitten by snakes were trying to kill it at the time they were bitten. In that case, I guess the snake was acting in
self-defense. And no worries for me in
that area—I never planned to get close enough to one to try to kill it. “Use a hoe!” my family tells me. “They don’t make hoes long enough!” I tell
them.
I tried to apply some logic to this though. Like I said, I love dogs. Selah does too. But just like it’s not a good idea to go out
and pick up some snake, it’s also not a great idea to approach a dog you don’t
know and try to pet it. I always caution
Selah to ask the dog’s owner before she tries to touch it. We’ve had opportunities to practice this, at
friends’ houses and also at the park when we are there playing and people are
out walking their dogs. I’ve tried to
teach my kids that most dogs are friendly, but they aren’t all nice, and
sometimes their owner might just not want to be bothered or the dog might be a
service animal. It’s just better to ask
before you run up and pet ANY animal.
And honestly, I know way more people that have been bitten by dogs than
by snakes, including myself.
So that brings us to today, and Repticon. We always try to do a fun day before back to
school, and today was it. We headed for
Southaven this morning, and the kids were looking forward to seeing the
animals. Brad and I didn’t realize that
this exhibit was more or less just a bunch of people trying to sell exotic
pets, but it was still really cool. They
had like a little classroom area set up and different people spoke about
different pets. And of course they had
tons of animals on display, although most of them were in cages.
Most, but not all.
There were quite a few people walking around with snakes wrapped around their
necks, like a necklace or something. I
made a mental note to try to steer clear of those people. But good grief, we were at a reptile exhibit,
so what did I expect? There was one guy
walking around with a HUGE snake around his shoulders, and while we were
crowded in looking at something, he and his buddy walked right up behind us. He wasn’t being rude at all, they were just
looking too, but there wasn’t anywhere I could go to get away from him. I seriously had to catch myself because I
started breathing really fast and shallow and I had to talk myself out of the
crazy tree just a little bit. But once I
was able to put a little space between us, I decided that I needed to just go
on and conquer that fear as best I could while I had such an opportunity.
I approached the guy and asked if we could look at the
snake, and he was more than happy to show her off to us. Yes, she was a girl, but I don’t remember her
name. He told us what kind she was—a boa,
if I remember correctly. My brain was
probably still deprived of oxygen at this point. He told us she was really sweet natured and
to illustrate this point, he kissed that snake right on her snakey face. I didn’t even pee my pants. I am so proud of me. I
asked if we could make pictures and touch her, and he said sure. So I snapped some photos, and then I petted
her. Brad says I only poked the snake,
since I just used my fingertip and barely touched her, but I disagree. The snake owner proudly told us that she was
5’5”, which makes her five inches taller than me. I think the fact that I could even stand in
the same room with her was a huge step for me.
And Brad really was proud, I could tell.
By far, our favorite animal was the bearded dragon. It’s a large lizard that they tout as being
the “dogs of the reptile world.” They are
very calm, and docile. Friendly even,
and good with kids. They are also
hypoallergenic, which is pretty cool for an indoor pet in a houseful of asthma sufferers. The kids loved them, and I told Brad I really wouldn’t
mind having one someday. People were
also walking around with those sitting on their shoulders, and it looked much
less creepy to me than the snakes. I
really think I even saw some of the lizards snuggling! I think what totally sold Brad on it was the harnesses. They sold little harnesses for them, so you can walk your lizard! Can you imagine busting up in the walking track with a two foot long lizard on a leash? That might cause a stir. But of all things, they were selling handmade dragon harnesses today, and they had an Ole Miss pattern. For real! So if we ever get a pet dragon, you know it will be an Ole Miss fan.
Afterwards, I laughed and said to Brad “You know if you didn’t
have me, you could’ve been one of those guys walking around with a snake on
your shoulders.” (He’s always wanted a
python, but I laid the law down on that one.)
“Was I worth it?” I asked him. He
rolled his eyes and said sarcastically “Let me get back to you on that one.” And then he said “Seriously though, have you
ever thought about how many girls WOULDN’T have married me because of Precious?” Precious was his pet tarantula. He got her the year before we started dating
and had her until she died of old age a couple of years after we got married. So yes, I lived with a tarantula. She honestly didn’t bother me very much
though. I’ve never been terribly afraid
of spiders—mainly just snakes and frogs—and she stayed in her cage all the
time, so it’s wasn’t like we had a giant free-range spider roaming around. What he said got me thinking, and I couldn’t
really think of many people that would’ve been okay sharing a house with a big,
fat, hairy spider, but I really didn’t mind.
So maybe I’m not SUCH a chicken.
And I told him, I really think I did have a snake phobia, and although I
still am uncomfortable and creeped out by them, I’m obviously not phobic or I
wouldn’t have been crazy enough to do what we did today.
Are you ready for some pictures? Proceed with caution! ;)
Here's the guy with the big boa. Selah isn't usually shy, but she was hiding her face because the guy was talking to her, not because she was afraid of the snake. This is the one we wound up petting.
This is the same snake. Her owner dangled her down from his hand like that, and she saw all the people crowding around to look at her, and she stuck her head under his shirt. Which creeped me out, but I really felt like sticking my head under somebody's shirt when I first saw her too, so the feeling was mutual.
Here's a lady handing over her 16 year old python to my eager husband.
And here he is showing it to our daughter. See how happy he looks? Weirdo.
Of course, she had to touch it. Little weirdo.
(But before you decide my crew is too strange, keep in mind a lady came up, scooped this snake out of Brad's hands, and talked baby talk to it. *IwillnotjudgeIwillnotjudgeIwillnotjudge*)
Here's Selah holding a baby bearded dragon.
And here's some full grown bearded dragons. Seriously, how many pets do you know that can pull off a spiked collar like that? Aren't they cool?
Korban liked this one.
And here's what creeped me out the most. Remember when I said that it was mostly people selling exotic pets?
Pre-packaged snakes, as far as the eye could see! I just kept thinking, what if someone knocks a table over and they get out and go everywhere?!? *insert full body shudder*
One of our funniest moments of the day occurred when Korban saw all those little snakes in the clear containers. He looked them over, and then looked up at us and asked "Are those gummy worms?" We totally cracked up and the guy selling them said that was one he'd never heard before.
Ever wonder what a giant toad in a takeout container would look like? Well, here you go! Yes, those are toads. I text my friend Carla this picture, and she thought they were brownies. I've gotta say, the resemblance is striking. And I don't love frogs, but I felt sorry for these guys, all squished in there like that. :(
I thought that little turtle was cute, but certainly not $75.00 worth of cute! Sorry, Mr. Turtle.
I tried to hard to get a picture of my three favorite people under the inflatable snake head, and this one with Korban holding his balloon in front of his face is the best I got. Strangely enough, the inflatable snake head was the ONLY thing there that Korban was afraid of.
We did some other fun things, that thankfully did not involve reptiles, and I will post the rest of that at a later date. I figure I've already given everybody enough to digest for one night. But today was fun. Here's to conquering fears, one cheap Groupon event at a time! ;)
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