Snake Show

PETCO hosted a Meet The Snakes show so the boys and I went. I wasn't really excited about going, but being a home school mom convinced myself that this would be a good educational activity. We will hopefully not ever have a snake of our own (never say never), so I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask questions from a knowledgeable person and to maybe touch a snake, see what they feel like, watch them move up close, etc.

I must have hidden my disgust of snakes well because the boys were not at all intimidated at the plethora of snakes on the tables. There were snakes everywhere. The guy running the show brought his personal stash of about 6 snakes. Then he got all of PETCO's snakes out of their cages and then customers started walking in carrying (and in some cases wearing) their snakes. The boys started out by petting a very large python that was wrapped around its owner's body. They progressed into holding a small snake and from there the snakes just got bigger.

One snake owner so kindly let the boys hold their python and commented more than once about how Mom didn't seem to be too interested in touching or holding the snakes. I told him I was the official photographer and didn't have time to enjoy the lovely reptiles over trying to catch the perfect shot.

We ended with an orange snake (I think it was albino) that was placed around Kolin's shoulders. The snake was not content to stay in that position and started twirling and wriggling and basically being a snake. It wrapped itself down and through Kolin's shirt and his shirt was literally being pulled up to his shoulders by this snake. Being the heroic mother that I am, and realizing that this snake was making Kolin uncomfortable and being mildly concerned that this snake was trying to wrap itself around Kolin's neck, I....went for help. That's right, I wasn't brave enough to grab the snake off of my own child's neck, instead I tapped the demonstrator gently on the shoulder and said, "Can you help him?"

Luckily he was kind enough to remove the snake and at that point I decided it was time to go look at the fish.